


Arena

by hanktalkin



Series: Colorswapped Universe [4]
Category: Team Fortress 2
Genre: Cardboard Cutouts, Cave-In, Crossfaction, Evil Corporations, Flashbacks, Handcuffs, Hostage Situations, Identity Reveal, Interrogation, M/M, Manipulation, Mystery, POV Multiple, Post WAR!, Rescue Missions, Robots, Sneaking Around, Survivor Guilt, Suspense, The Arena, Threats of Violence, no respawn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-13
Updated: 2017-12-06
Packaged: 2018-12-27 17:28:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 20
Words: 51,064
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12085848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hanktalkin/pseuds/hanktalkin
Summary: “If time goes on for too long with neither team gaining the upper hand, Sudden Death will ensue. There are several restrictions implemented in Sudden Death that are not features of normal play. These are all designed to hasten the game’s conclusion.”-Official TF Industries Rulebook





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Beta'd by YourChickenMan
> 
> Updates on Sundays and Wednesdays

What had once been an industrial style battlefield masquerading as an abandoned power plant had melded over time in to something completely new. On the surface, Hydro looked the same as they’d left it, but it was what lay beneath that was unrecognizable. Tunnels had been bored into the red earth like the map was the home of a hundred giant ants; passages and shafts that went nowhere, a unexplained mine that had simply sprung in to existence. No one had time to do more than acknowledge its existence. A match was starting early in the morning after all.

No, the only thing there was time for was a brief observation of the weird new holes in lower levels of the base. If anything, it was an interesting morsel of small talk to a fellow teammate over dinner, but then it was off to bed to recover from the long drive south.

Morning found two evenly matched teams, shouldering their weapons and preparing for a new fight. Some of the most enthusiastic were running over internal maps in their mind, trying to refresh on the best sentry spots or flank routes. Most just stared at the metallic grate sleepily, urging it to open so they could get on with the day.

“Announcement begins in ten minutes.”

For once, to the surprise of anyone who was paying attention, the Administrator’s message was right on the mark. They’d gotten used to not relying on the overhead speakers anymore, as they were usually off by a few minutes. But, here was that familiar voice, right on time and yet spouting out the wrong command.

No one had to wait long. Because, just as the voice implied, the mission did not begin.

A couple of the mercs tugged on the gates, the ones that swung open without fail every morning, but they didn’t budge. At first each team wondered if somehow they had all gotten the time wrong this time around. Or, after that theory was dismissed, maybe the gates themselves had malfunctioned, and the gravel wars had finally gone kaput. All speculations were silenced as the promised announcement came on.

“Congratulations. You have unlocked Sudden Death. From this moment on respawn will be disabled and attempts to leave designated map premises are not permitted. Please proceed to kill all members of the opposing team as in compliance with previous mission details. Sudden Death will persist until mission completion. Good luck.”

The message lasted less than thirty seconds. It was followed by ten seconds of dead silence before all hell broke loose.


	2. How is This Even Science, Without Possibility of Death?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> During this story, you can hover over Pyro-Speak to see what they're saying.

“This is ridiculous! We should be strategizing _how_ to attack, not bickering about whether we should attack at all!”

The RED war room was filled with commotion. Everyone shouted over everyone else, which they had been doing since the Administrator’s announcement. The only consensus they had been able to come to in that time was that they should move the team-wide argument out of the spawn room and back in to base.

“What do you think you’re going to accomplish Spy, with only half the team at your back?” Engineer shot back, slamming both hands on the table. “Even _if_ we went along with you, going in blind is suicide.”

The RED Soldier watched the verbal tennis match as he shifted back and forth on his feet. He hadn’t said much since this had all started. Or, more accurately, he had reduced his level of talkativeness to that of what a normal human being might possess. It didn’t matter, however, since even when he _did_ try to say anything, RED ignored him. It’s not like the Soldier would have anything helpful to add, obviously.

Soldier cast his eyes over at Demo. The Demoman hadn’t said much either, but at least RED seemed to listen to him. Soldier desperately wanted to pull him aside so they could talk one on one, but there had been no time as of yet with all the contentious debate thrown through the air. Briefly, their eyes met, but there was nothing passed between them except for intense worry.

“I am not suggesting we go in blind,” Spy continued. “We must focus our attention on making a plan of attack. Certainly this is not unlike Arena Mode, no? We focus on taking out the enemy Medic, and the rest will fall like a stack of cards.”

“Engineer takes coward’s path,” Heavy put in, standing neutrally between the two shouting men, despite apparently having Spy’s likemind.

Engie ground his teeth. “I ain’t no coward, son. You can bet your ass on that.”

“And yet you would have us sit here and twiddle our thumbs, waiting for some sort of revelation while BLU mounts their own attack,” Spy glowered.

“And _you_ suggest we start a fight off now, when we haven’t been given a real reason to do so besides some traitorous cow telling us so.” Engie put up his hand at Spy’s protest, indicating he wasn’t finished. “Listen son, if we go to war, people _will_ die. And not just a couple of BLUs, because even if we _weren’t_ as evenly matched as we are, there is no way on God’s green Earth we could make it out without causalities on our side. When a man goes to war, he has to make that consideration, and that will make him less eager to do so. Unless…that man plans on having others die in his place.”

The Engineer’s eyes seemed to burn through his thick goggles, boring holes into the Spy. Not liking the accusation of “coward” turned on him, Spy glared right back. The friction between them could have set the whole base on fire if Demo hadn’t interrupted.

“Engie’s right about one thing,” he pointed out. “They haenae attacked us yet. Most likely they are having a similar conversation over at BLU, and arnae in unanimous agreement either. If they were, we’d hear them coming over the hills by now.”

“Right!” Soldier shouted, finally finding his voice. “If they have not attacked us, it is dishonorable to go after them. We should be benefiting their doubting!”

That sputtered the room in to silence. The excitement that Soldier had gathered to put his thoughts in to words slipped away as his teammates looked at him in shock. Even the Engineer, whose side the Soldier was taking, furrowed his brow in concern.

“That is merely a technicality,” Spy continued like he hadn’t been interrupted, even though his eyes were firmly locked on Soldier. “One I would not like to leave up to chance. Suppose we give them the benefit of the doubt and they use it to their advantage? We will wake with out throats slit and a BLU victory on the board. The final one.”

Soldier struggled to come up with a response. “That…won’t happen.”

Spy blew air out of his nose. The rest of the room also looked unconvinced, even the members who hadn’t made up their minds yet. Even Demo looked angry, his mouth in a hard line as he looked at Soldier and shook his head.

“Even so, the ceasefire is the only thing we have right now,” Engineer said finally. Soldier breathed a sigh of relief the room’s attention turned off of him. “This is the time we have to plan. There are too many variables, and until we know exactly what we’re working with, there’s no way to escape this hellhole.”

Soldier stayed quiet for the rest of the day. Nothing got decided, but at this point he felt like they were stalling for time. Among the other things that didn’t change, was that he could feel Spy’s eyes on him, even as RED descended in to more shouting.

* * *

Several miles away, BLU base was similarly wracked by indecision. Dissimilarly, it was wrapped in a cold unease, most of its occupants finding it difficult to voice how fucked up this was.

“But why _now_?” Scout was demanding to the room, and therefore, no one in particular. “It’s been what? Six years that we’ve been doin’ this? And only now has that bitch decided she wants to shove us into this Most Dangerous Game. Like, if she didn’t want to pay us anymore she could have just fired us.”

“Jesus Scout, if you dunnae have anything new to add just be quiet.” The Demoman pinched the bridge of his nose, looking over the map in the center of the room fruitlessly. “Have you even read The Most Dangerous Game?”

Scout lifted his head from where he’d hung it over the couch armrest. “I’ve seen the movie,” he grumbled, folding his arms over his chest.

“Scout may have a point.” The statement had come from Spy, smoking his cigarette in the corner of the room.

Demo raised an eyebrow. “You’re backin’ _Scout_? Is there an eclipse or somethin’?”

“Shocking, I know.” Spy stepped closer to the table, drawing the room’s attention. “But he is right that many things here do not add up. Initially we all believed what the announcement implied: that this is our final assignment. However, there is nothing in our contracts that refers to a team-wide removal of respawn. Can you imagine that they have any intention of paying us after betraying us so thoroughly? No, I think it is safe to say that we are no longer in the employment of BLU, or under jurisdiction of TF Industries.”

The room hovered in an agitated silence, soaking in the news.

Demo drummed his fingers on the table. “Alright. ‘Suppose you’re right. Then we still dunnae know why, and we’re no closer tae figurin’ out a way out o’ this.”

“Come now, think through this,” Spy said. “We have nine minds here, some of them above middle-school level intelligence.” A _hey!_ could be heard from the couch. “If go through this logically, we may better understand what is expected to happen to us, instead of just blindly trusting our dear Administrator.”

Demo grumbled, but agreed to the Spy’s mental exercise. With a huff, he followed the line of reasoning. “So they dunnae plan on payin’ us. But they expect us tae kill RED with no other motivation besides they might kill us first?”

“Pretty bloody stupid considering,” Sniper agreed. “I mean we’re mercenaries! Everything we do is for the check.”

“No,” said Heavy suddenly. “This is wrong order.” The whole room, save Spy, looked at him with surprise. “They do not want to have us kill and then not pay us. They no longer want to hire us, so they have us kill.”

“My thought process precisely,” Spy agreed.

“They want a massacre.” This surprised even more members of BLU, since Soldier had not spoken a single word all night. He had remained at the back of the room, arms folded over, face stonehard.

“Yes,” Spy said. “I believe that both RED and BLU have come to an agreement, brokered through the Administrator. They expect both teams to be eliminated, or at least reduced to such small numbers—say, one or two survivors—that we can be easily managed. Now the question of _why_ they’re doing this, I only have the faintest. I suppose-”

“I’ll tell you why,” Soldier continued. “Because we are fulfilling what we were placed on this Earth to DO, maggot! Eighteen men, fighting to the death for the sheer thrill of battle? What could be more motivating than that?”

Demo gaped at the apparent excitement in Soldier’s voice. What the hell was he talking about? Had he lost his goddamned mind finally? There was no possible way he could look forward to attacking REDs, not when DeGroot was just across the canyon…

If Spy found Soldier’s statement sudden, he didn’t show it. He waved his hand away. “I had considered that. Although entertainment may be one motive, I find it more likely that we have become a liability in some way. Perhaps we know too much about respawn? Or base locations, or even about Pauling and the other staff-”

“Hudda, hudda.”

Spy looked down to where Pyro was pulling at his sleeve. No on had noticed the gas-masked mercenary’s attempts to get their attention until now, and they mimicked Spy as his eyes followed the Pyro’s finger. Above the war room, the solitary camera had blinked on.

“…Or perhaps I ruled out the sadistic nature of our former employers too soon.”


	3. It’s just a scratch. You’ll be fine.

The mood at BLU had gone from cautious trepidation to submerged in a bucket of ice water. Barely anyone made a statement without looking up at the camera above them, the red light blinking menacingly every half-second.

“At least they dunnae pick up sound,” Demo said, trying to find some sort of silver lining.

“That doesn’t change the fact that those rat bastards are filming us like some goddamned voyeurs,” Engie growled, looking up at the camera with malice. The mercenaries had gotten so used to useless derelict props that had once recorded them, they had forgotten it always used to be like this. The idea that someone was watching their every move had once again become unnerving. Especially now since they knew she wanted them dead.

“Okay, fucking fine, the cams are back on. Big whoop.” Scout sat up, chewing on the inside of his cheek with defiance in his eyes. “For all we know this whole thing is one big ass bluff. How do we even know for sure that respawn is off in the first place?”

Medic raised an eyebrow. “Is that something you would want to test, Scout?”

Scout kicked the toe of his cleat at the ground. “Well, _no_ , but-”

“I see no reason why they would lie about such a thing,” Spy reasoned. “But that does raise the issue: if they really wanted us dead, why not disable respawn and not tell us?”

BLU team all shared a weary glance. Something deeper was going on below the surface here, but they were like lab rats: unable to see the whole maze.

“Okay, fine. Let’s say they’re telling the truth about that,” Scout continued. “But there was a bunch of other stuff they could be lyin’ about. Like, all she said was tryin’ to leave isn’t allowed or whatever, but other than that what’s stoppin’ us? How would she even kill us if we left anyways, hire some more mercenaries she _also_ can’t afford?”

“What are you sayin’?” Demo asked with irritation. “You think it’s a good idea to just try walkin’ out?”

Scout got to his feet. “Sure. Why not? I ain’t afraid of a bunch of cameras, and it’s better than sitting around and waiting for RED to start this shitshow.”

The room spilled into heated arguments, more intense than it had been all night. Most agreed that Scout was planning his own suicide, but there was a deeper shared feeling of curiosity. There were so many unknowns at play that, although no one admitted it aloud, on some level they wanted to understand this piece of the puzzle. That’s probably why, after almost an hour of back and forth, they watched Scout grab his weapons and head out of base. Demo knew if he really wanted to, he could stop the idiot before he got himself killed, but he didn’t, and instead followed him out of the power plant. Medic grabbed the medigun from the supply room. No one had any idea what to expect, yet it most certainly couldn’t end with Scout getting out scot-free, could it?

The power plant where BLU base was located was sunk in to the earth, and the team had to ride the lift up over the lip of the canyon to see the edge of Hyrdo. If Demo squinted, he could just see down the dirt road to where they’d parked the cars.

Scout looked at them too. He breathed, and there may have been a slight look of hesitation on his face before he set jaw and started walking forward. The rest of BLU held its breath, perched on the edge of the cliff leaning in the shadow of the lift as the sun went down behind him. Scout was halfway to the cars when he looked over his shoulder, grin on his face, mouth half open to say something snarky-

When two near instantaneous cracks shook the canyon. The battle hardened mercenaries acted reflexively, dropping to the dirt as the familiar sound of sniper fire reverberated in the air and in to their nervous systems. Scout dropped like an empty sack.

Demo’s reaction was slower, eye widening at Scout’s prone form, before a hand was on the back of his neck dragging him down. “If you still want your brain between your ears get on the GROUND, maggot!”

There was sudden panic in the group, desperately looking around to see where the shots had come from. Someone said _holy shit_ , but before BLU could decide to move, the loudspeakers crackled to life, playing a new message that echoed through Hydro and all the way to RED base.

“A reminder that attempting to leave the mission area is prohibited. BLU has received a penalty.”

“Fuck…” Demo whispered.

The team was still stunned in to silence. No more sniper fire came from the surrounding crags, and slowly they got to their feet. Everyone looked shaken, even Soldier when Demo spared him a look. They might have stayed stunned like that until Sniper shouted, “Holy Dooley! Bloody jackrabbit’s still alive!”

He was right. Popping his head up slightly, Demo could see Scout stir, but at this distance he couldn’t tell what state the merc was in. Sniper stepped forward, and though going to help, but froze. Demo saw why. As Sniper’s foot crossed some unseen barrier, a green dot appeared on his chest.

“Shit,” Demo hissed. “Sniper, dunnae move.”

“You don’t have to tell me twice mate.” Sniper put up both his hands in a motion of surrender, and backed away. The green dot winked out.

The rest of the team had noticed too, and Heavy was already scanning the rocky outcroppings for the source off their jailers. Medic came as close as he could before shouting, “Scout! Can you hear us?”

Faintly, Scout made a motion like he was attempting to roll on his side.

“We cannot come get you. You must make it to us.”

There was a distant groan of pain, and it sounded like the Scout was barely conscious. From where Demo was, he could see fresh blood pooling on the red earth.

“ _Scheiße_ ,” Medic hissed, and suddenly he was on the lift, punching the button and abandoning his team on the ledge.

“Doktor!” Heavy yelled at the same time Soldier demanded, “Where the hell do you think you’re going, cupcake?”

Medic didn’t answer, already out of sight.

“Bloody hell,” Sniper muttered still staring out at the body that was oh-so-far away. “Just hang on kid! We’ll find a way to get to you.” Another faint moan could be heard across the flat land in between the cliff and the cars. He turned to Spy. “Spook, can you sneak out there? Past whatever’s shooting?”

Spy’s face was unreadable. “I am not eager to try. If they have this tight of security, no doubt they are aware of the invis-watch’s capabilities.”

“Well you could at least give it a bloody shot! He’s fucking dying out there!” Blood was rushing to Sniper’s face.

“Do you think I would not try to help him if I thought it would make a difference?” Spy snapped instantly. “Besides, even if I were to sneak past, moving him would immediately reveal my position.”

“Lads, calm down,” Demo said, stepping in between them even though he was on the verge of panic himself. Sure he’d known that respawn was off, just like everyone else, but only _now_ was it starting to hit him. Scout was dying out there, he might actually die, and they wouldn’t get any do-overs. All over stupid curiosity.

The argument didn’t escalate any further, because just then lift began to shake, and Medic appeared again. “Out of my way,” he demanded.

The BLUs parted, and Medic pressed the stock of the Crusader’s Crossbow against his shoulder. His hands were shaking, and when he pulled the trigger, the needle fell uselessly a few feet from Scout.

“ _Verdammt_ ,” he muttered, and this time took a steadying breath. This time when he fired, it hit its mark.

Scout stirred, more substantially this time, and pushed himself up in to a sitting position. Demo could see him more clearly now, and at least one of the sniper shots had gone through his shoulder. Medic landed another shot, and a distant, _yo what the FUCK_ could be heard.

“Scout! Get back over here! Now!” Medic managed to clear the uncertainty from his voice.

They watched the mercenary push himself to his feet and limp over. It seemed to take forever, his teammates glancing around nervously just in case their mysterious enemies tried to finish the job. Finally, Scout was within range, and Medic put the medigun’s beam on him. Scout looked as shocked as they all felt. He’d probably realized the same as Demo: he’d come much closer to real death than he’d even been.

Silently, BLU watched as the bullet holes in Scout’s shoulder and leg mended themselves, and popped out the remains of the spent bullets. Out of the corner of his eye, Demo saw the Engineer scoop them up.

“Well,” Spy said after several minutes of agonizing silence. “I think we have learned two things. One, Scout is an idiot. Two, the people who are toying with us are very, very serious about playing by their rules.”

No one objected, and they took the lift back down into the base. Sniper hovered near Scout protectively, as though he thought Scout might keel over at any moment. In fact, the kid might yet. There were certain experiences the medigun couldn’t mend.


	4. It’s a Circle, I mean Cycle

Back in so-called “safety” of BLU base, Demo made his way through the halls. One of the giant tunnels was along his path, bursting through the white tile and littering the base with chunks of ceramic. The yearning black depths that lay beyond seem to call to him, and he shook his head to clear it. Yet another mystery that wouldn’t be solved tonight.

No one had felt much like arguing anymore after Scout’s near death experience, and most had gone back to their respective rooms, dinner unfinished. Demo had spent a long time in deliberation, and realized that there was only one thing a man like him would do in a situation like this. But first, he had someone to check on.

“Soldier, I need- Jesus!” The Demoman swore as his arm was yanked forward before he could fully step into Soldier’s room.

Just as quickly as it happened, Soldier let him go, stepping back in to the shadows of his poorly lit quarters. What the fuck? Had he been standing behind the door this whole time waiting for someone to walk inside?

“What the hell was that for?” Demo said, rubbing his sore shoulder.

“Spy-check,” Soldier replied coolly. “If you were that French poof, my hand would have gone right through your reasonably sized arm.”

“A _Spy-check_? On _base_?” Demo demanded with annoyance.

Soldier didn’t even dignify him with a nod. “The rules have changed, Demoman. You and I both know that.”

Demo grumbled, but he knew the Soldier was right. Although he suddenly realized that he didn’t knew of Soldier had been checking for the enemy Spy or their own.

“And if you want to talk, let’s do it somewhere else. Doors are thin.”

Demo had gotten used to his teammate’s paranoia, but this whole situation must be making it worse than ever. He followed Soldier away from the rooms, up and near the lift. It was clear enough that they could see if there were any eavesdroppers, but not so open that their voices would carry.

“Alright. What is it?”

Demo looked around the outside warily. “Why the hell did you say that back in there? That whole bullshite about ‘fufillin’ our purpose’ or whatever. You dunnae actually want to fight this out, do you?”

“Of course I don’t,” Soldier replied, and—was Demo imagining it, or was there a trace of hurt in his voice? “Come on son, use that brain you always think you have. If I _hadn’t_ said something, or if I said what I’m really thinking, that would have raised a hell of a lot more suspicion that if I’d gone along with whatever you were spouting off.”

Demo narrowed his eye. “So this isn’t some grand plan tae go out in one last blaze o’ glory?”

“No,” Soldier said darkly. “I don’t want this cycle anymore. But the storm’s coming, and you, me, our friends over there, and everyone else are in its path. God help us.”

His voice had taken on an almost otherworldly tone, and Demo swallowed thickly. He was sure if he could see Soldier’s eyes, they would be burning with some unexplainable fear. There was something deeply wrong with his friend, something that would only get worse if they ended up having to fight RED.

“Alright,” Demo said, though not entirely relieved. “At least you’re still with me. I wanted to make sure o’ that before I left.”

“Left?” Soldier asked, more firmly in reality. “Where the hell too?”

“I’m goin’ on holiday in Cancún,” Graham said sarcastically as he rolled his eye. “Where do you think I’m goin’? Two o’ our best friends might be arse-deep in trouble for all we know, and I’ve got tae check up on them.”

Soldier’s jaw tightened. “RED base? Are you insane? You make Scout’s ideas look like fucking rocket science by comparison.”

“Maybe, but it’s what’s got tae be done. I need tae make sure they’re alright,” Demo insisted, hoping to appeal to the worry he knew must be building up inside Soldier. If it was even a fraction of the fear he was feeling for Major, it would unbearable. “We also have tae tell them what we found out, about the shooters watchin’ the perimeter. Surely even you can see necessity in that?”

“Doesn’t matter,” Soldier insisted, crossing his arms over his large chest. “It’s too risky. RED could see you, and not ask any questions. Your gibs would be splatting off that giant disk before you could even say _mommy_.”

Now Graham was getting frustrated. “So, what? You just want us tae sit here and let whatever happens, happen?”

“Better than being down a man before the show even starts. You two always took too many goddamned risks, and I put up with it because at least you had the decency to have your secret little make-out sessions out of sight. But look!” Soldier swung one thick finger at the nearest camera, clinging to the outer base like a fly on the wall. “That’s not going to work anymore. _Nowhere_ is out of sight.”

Demo took a deep breath to calm himself. He didn’t want to part on bad terms, not when he new this might be the last time he saw Soldier. And, despite his outward anger, he knew the Soldier’s hostility came from a place of hurt. A softer part of him that cared about Demo, and especially the two REDs he was going to see.

“I know Soldier. I thought o’ all o’ that. I weighed all the pros and cons and in the end I’m still goin’.” Demo paused, for a moment, then asked, “are you goin’ tae stop me?”

He knew Soldier well enough now that the apparent stoicism his face set itself in to was hiding difficult emotions going on beneath. Soldier was struggling with both option, but in the end, he sighed and his shoulders dropped.

“No. I guess I’m not.”

“Thanks, Sol.”

Demo turned to go—no use putting off his trip now that dark had descended and at least one person knew where he was going—but Soldier grabbed his arm to stop him. “Demo. Just…be careful. And make sure…” He frowned, knowing he couldn’t ask Demo to make sure Tavish and Major were alright. That would take a lot more time than one trip across the canyon. “…Make sure he knows. That I’m not going anywhere.”

Demo put a hand over Soldier’s and gave it a squeeze. Promise made, he sulked across the ravine to RED base.

-

Graham felt like he spent three lifetimes beneath the giant radar dish that guarded RED base, trying to find the lone path of darkness that would conceal him. There were at least a dozen RED sentries beeping quietly at him as he made his way beneath their gaze, their sightlines a maze for him to navigate. Graham felt indignation that made his hands twitch for his sticky launcher. But hey, respawn was off. What reason did RED have play by the old rules?

 _I should suggest our Engie do the same_ , he thought, and immediately felt guilt. An army of BLU sentries wouldn’t solve their problems, and could only result in more.

Finally, he was able to make it to the inner layers of RED base. He was no spy, and without any fancy gadgets, the several hour infiltration had left with a hunched back and creaking knees. Although it wasn’t an easy decision, he’d left his weapons behind. He knew they would be cumbersome (and felt naked going so far in to enemy territory without something to defend himself) but after a lot of consideration, he decided that his chances were better without. On the chance that he was caught, he had the slim chance to convince RED he meant no harm. And that was less slim that the chance of fighting off the whole team without hurting Tavish or the Major.

Graham rolled his neck and looked up. He’d never been this close to a RED base before, not the one the team actually lived in. The dark reflections its windows now faced him with the obvious question: now what?

He could try sneaking in to Tavish or Major’s rooms; the bases were mirror images, they couldn’t be too hard to find. But there were so many chances to be seen like that, and even if he did reach somewhere safe, the people he was looking for might not even be there.

_Didn’t think this far ahead, did you eejit?_

As the feeling of hopeless indecision began to set in, he spied something on the top of a nearby outcropping. A campfire was flickering, with several figures gathered around it, looking out over the base. Graham got closer, moving himself to the other side of the rocks where a path gently sloped to the top. A fire would destroy the night vision of whoever was near, and the Demoman hoped he could gain a little intrigue about what was going on over on this side.

“We need more rations, don’t you think Salty Pete?”

The voice that greeted Graham as he came in range made his heart flutter with sudden recognition. He stopped, but longing pulled soul further as he was able to make out that sharp, commanding note that was just _slightly_ different from its BLU counterpart. It was almost unperceivable to anyone who didn’t know Mary as well as Graham.

“Well, if boiled water is good enough for you and Sally Hally, then it’s good enough for me. Drink up boys!” Mary raised his mug in toast, to which his two comrades did not return. As Graham blinked, he realized that the Major’s friends weren’t some strangely named REDs that had chosen to watch the fire. In fact, they seemed quite inanimate.

This didn’t seem to bother Mary at all, and he tilted back his mug as though he were drowning his sorrows. Graham surveyed the scene but, like he had initially, thought they were entirely alone on the hill (save for what appeared to be slabs of painted wood.) Graham’s tongue felt heavy as he looked at the man he loved, not sure how to begin their forbidden conversation. He was saved the trouble as his foot slipped on loose dirt, and the sound of falling pebbles alerted the Soldier.

Mary was on his feet in an instant, shotgun appearing in his hands from where it must have stashed under his seat. “Show yourself,” he demanded, the fake ease that had been in his speech before gone. “If you think you can sneak up on me, you’ve got another thing coming, hippie.”

Graham breathed, and slowly approached the circle of light. “I suggest you dunnae shoot me, lad. Montgomery would be terribly disappointed.”

Mary’s eyes widened underneath his helmet at the familiar voice. “ _Graham_.” Graham didn’t have time to think of any more cheesy one-liners; the shotgun was dropped as Mary rushed forward and yanked Graham in to a kiss.

The warmth of the fire flickering against their sides mimicked the warmth of relief spilling out of Graham’s chest. He knew, in a practical sense, that he had to see at least Major or DeGroot in order to warn them about the enforced perimeter, but he’d still deeply hoped that it’d be Mary. He returned the kiss urgently, comforted by the taste of the Soldier’s lips.

He wanted to cherish their sudden stolen moment, glad to at least see Mary was safe for the time being, but the Major pushed him back suddenly.

“I’m so glad you’re alive.” He held Graham at arms length and looked at him with desperate eyes. “When we heard the announcement we thought…” He swallowed a knot in his throat.

“That’s what I came tae talk to you about,” Graham nodded, the solemnness of their situation crawling through him once again.

“She said…you were punished?” Mary’s voice was barely above a whisper. Graham couldn’t imagine what it had been doing to him and Tavish. Sitting around, wondering who it had been.

“Scout,” Graham said grimly. “He’s alive, but he almost wasnae. They have… _somethin’_ guarding the outsides o’ the map.”

“What? What did you see?” Mary demanded sharply.

Graham could only shake his head. “Nothin’. That’s the problem. But somethin’ was shootin’ at us when we tried to leave, probably a lot o’ somethin’s. They’ve got us pinned right good. We know they want both teams obliterated, and keepin’ us locked up here is how their goin’ to do that.” Graham saw a look of surprise cross Mary’s face. “Did RED nae figure that out?”

Mary shook his head. “I…that makes sense, I guess. About as much sense as anything else here. But, no, we haven’t figured _anything_ out. It’s all been arguing, ever since the announcement.” Mary jerked, his helmet swinging as he swiveled his head and gripped Graham’s shoulders again. A new, sudden fear had entered his voice. “Graham. They’re planning to attack BLU.”

Graham’s stomach flipped, worst fears confirmed.

Mary continued. “Well, not entirely. At first it was just Spy and Heavy who said we should, but when we heard that you were down a man, Medic and Scout thought it was too good of an opportunity. Pyro is still undecided, but if she sides with them…” Mary was breathing heavily, the uncertainty of the past day putting him through more shit than he’d gone through in a long time. Graham cupped his cheek with a hand, waiting for Major to relax. When he did, he pushed up his helmet with his thumb so he could better look at Graham. “Graham I do not…I think if we decide we have to fight…I will…I cannot go against my family.”

He said the last word with such desperation, Graham pulled him in to a hug. Things were spiraling out of control quickly. By morning RED could be on the attack, and BLU hadn’t even come up with a battle strategy, so preoccupied on their unseen captors. They had to come up with a plan, and this might be his only chance to talk to Mary about it.

“I know. I know you cannae. That’s why we’ve got tae figure somethin’ out, before either o’ us have tae make any choices about where our loyalties lie.”

It took longer for Mary to calm down this time. When he did, he looked around the campfire with sudden intent, hackles raised. “Maybe…you shouldn’t have come. If someone had seen you…”

“It was risky, but I had to. The four o’ us need a plan, and no amount o’ grousin’ is goin’ to change that. No matter _who’s_ barkin’ at me.”

“Jane didn’t want you to come either?” Mary blinked.

“That’s an understatement. Come on, let’s sit down.” They plopped down on the pile of rock Mary had been using as a makeshift seat, Graham wrapping an arm around his Major’s shoulders. “So. Can I ask what’s up with tweele dee and tweedle dum?”

“Oh,” Mary said as Graham indicated the wooden sheets across from them. “That’s Soupy-Poopy Pete and Stammering Brian. They’re my friends. I thought it’d be nice to come out here with just the three of us and get away from…” He waved backwards at the base. “All that.”

Graham didn’t respond, just squeezed Mary tighter. He knew they had to plan but…he wanted to share this moment for now. Something to hold on to if he died in a swarm of RED bullets tomorrow.

“So…” Mary murmured as he rubbed Graham’s wrist absentmindedly. “What are we going to do?”

“Good fuckin’ question. Leavin’ is hardly an option, nae when there’s… _things_ out there. I suppose we could escape intae the hills; Hydro’s enormous after all. No one would find us no matter how long they looked. And then there’s those fuckin’ tunnels! Could hide out in those, though knowin’ what the Administrator has cooked up in the past, who _knows_ what’s down there.”

Shaking his head, Mary said, “I cannot just run away. _We_ can’t just run away. If the rest of RED tries to attack without us, it’ll be a slaughter.”

“But,” Graham objected, “If you two arnae there, that might make ‘em think twice about fightin’ an uphill battle.”

“Well what if BLU attacks us?” Mary said hopelessly.

“They won’t.” Graham said it with as much confidence as he could muster. Nothing that’d been happening at BLU would make him think otherwise. “You got tae trust me. We just need to lie low, just long enough for us tae find a way out o’ this place.”

Mary didn’t look happy, but he could see that Graham had some semblance of their best hope at survival. That’s what had always drawn the Soldier to him, the way he just seemed to know what to do.

“Okay,” Mary said, then more confidently, “Okay. But, if we do find a way out, can I…can I come back and show the rest of my team? So we can all make it out of this?”

Graham knew the right thing to say. “O’ course. And I’ll try tae get BLU out too. But we’ll have to find that loophole first.”

With something that was almost relief, Mary sighed, and stared in to the fire. “So. I guess that’s all we can do for now, huh? Just keep trying to keep our friends from murdering each other until something happens.”

With a plan, even one as unsatisfying as that, the Major seemed to relax. They stayed like that a while longer, just soaking in the fire while Mary finished off his mug. After a time, Graham stood, letting his knees pop.

“I have tae be leaving now, it’s already late. Dunnae want anyone tae miss me.”

Mary nodded sadly, and hugged him one last time. He was trying to pretend this was like all the other time Graham brought them back to reality and sent them to their respective bases. He wasn’t very good at pretending. “Be careful.”

“O’ course I will,” Graham said, managing a grin for his boyfriend’s sake. “I’m the king o’ careful.” With that he moved away from the slowly shrinking circle of firelight. But he stopped, remembering something. “Oh, and I need you tae pass on a message for me. I believe it was ‘’I’m not going anywhere’.’”

Mary took a moment to process, but eventually smiled softly. “Alright. I will deliver that.”

“No, I don’t think you will.”

Ice clawed at every part of Graham’s being as he heard the distinctive voice of the Spy exude come from behind him. He turned, and came face to face with the barrel of a six-shot revolver.

The RED Spy glared as the rest of him decloaked. “You both have quite a lot to answer for.”


	5. You Can't Fight In Here! This is the War Room!

If RED base had been hell before, then it was the devil’s own throne room now. Emotions ran high, the impending doom before now tinged with something even closer to home. _Betrayal_.

“How can you still claim he is innocent in all of this?” Spy demanded, once again locked in combat with the Engineer. “You heard his confession yourself!”

“I heard a lot of things,” Engie replied, folding his arms. “Some of them contradictory. I’ll tell you again: the boy’s confused. And I can’t believe you’re willing to turn on Solly this easily, after everything we’ve gone through.”

Spy said something, but was drowned out by a sudden interjection by Scout. Heavy and Medic were having their own argument in the corner, leaving Tavish to stand frozen in indecision. He shared his relatively quiet corner with Sniper who, thankfully, seemed as disinclined to contribute as the Demoman. The whole night had been nauseating, knowing he should at least say _something_ to divert suspicion off himself, but the more he talked the more chance there was to screw something up.

Graham had been similarly tight-lipped. Surrounded by the enemy team, all in various states of awakeness and dress, he wasn’t scared in the slightest. Or at least, he didn’t look it to Tavish. Graham had sat in the center of the room, arms bound tightly behind a wooden chair, and never looked directly at his fellow Demoman. But he also made a point to not _not_ look at him either. He was smart in that way at least. You couldn’t help but admire him.

Graham weathered the questions in cold indifference. It was a bold strategy, and a difficult one, as Spy took charge with insults and harsh threats. RED, for once, was mercifully quiet; holding a breath as they waited to know exactly what the hell was going on. Others took turns, but Graham just frowned at them all.

He didn’t even break when Spy hit him.

It was a sudden smack across the face, born of frustration and an hour of fruitless questioning, and it was by sheer luck no one saw Tavish flinch. Engie was moving an instant later, clasping Spy’s wrist in a metallic grip that made the Frenchman hiss.

“That is _not_ how we’re doing this,” he snarled. Tavish could feel the venom in it all way from where he stood.

Mary’s interrogation was much different. Tavish could see beads of sweat forming on Mary’s brow with every question, even the simple ones with simple answers. He popped back and forth between two moods; either he was his tough battle-hardened self, spouting off his rank and number to every question, or a familiar, but frightened persona as seven of his former friends stared daggers in to him. The questions went around in circles. Mary barked off that what he was doing at the campfire was none of their damn business, then that he was seeing friends, but then that he hadn’t expected to see the BLU there at all. Each time he just got more and more confused, even when Engie tired a softer approach.

After a while, he realized he couldn’t say anything without jeopardizing the Demoman sulking at the back of the room. Eventually, he just shut up, and responded to every question with a shake of his head and a pained look.

“Well the only thing we should be worrying about is very clear,” Spy managed to say above the noise.

Engie narrowed his eyes, goggles missing from his sleep attire. “And what is that, exactly?”

Spy looked like he’d smelled something particularly revolting. “We need to _deal_ with our Soldier. It is completely ridiculous that we have him locked in his bedroom like he’s a disobedient teenager, instead of a traitor who may very well be plotting against us.”

That was one good thing at least. Mary was safe for now, much better than whatever Heavy and Spy they had made up for Graham.

“Spy. That’s down right jerky. This is _Soldier_ we’re talking about here.” The feeling in the room was that of general agreement. Engie continued, “If anything, he’s gotten himself in over his head with something he doesn’t understand. Which about puts him on the same page as us.”

“He knows more about all of this than he’s telling,” Spy insisted. “And even without that, he’s sold us out to BLU. Certainly that is enough evidence of his guilt?”

“From what you’ve told us from his conversation with the BLU Demoman, it seems like Soldier is not interested in betraying us at all,” Medic said. “As you put it, he wanted to find a way out and ‘come back’ for us?”

“Yes,” Spy said rubbing his temples, “but that doesn’t change the fact that he told a BLU, who are _still our enemy_ , our plans of attack. The people who are trying to kill us. Which is yet _another_ thing we must take care of.”

“Wadda ya mean?” Scout piped up.

“I _mean_ that we obviously cannot gain any information from the BLU. Neither about BLU team nor about this mysterious Jane woman.”

Right. That had been a question asked often against the two “double agents.” Tavish was just glad _his_ name hadn’t been slipped during Mary and Graham’s midnight conversation; that would be a lot harder to obscure the identity on.

“Well I think you’re all missing the obvious one on that,” Scout pointed out. “Well, I mean how many chicks do we really know?” When everyone just stared at him he raised his eyebrows. “Any of you fellas know Miss Pauling’s first name?”

A series of whispers went through the room. Spy waved his hand. “Pure conjecture. Just because she is the only one we are aware of, doesn’t mean she is the only one the Administrator has in her employ. Guessing does us nothing if we cannot know our true enemy.”

“Dare I ask what you’re getting at Spy?” Engie folded his arms.

“BLU is our immediate problem,” Spy said firmly. “I say since we cannot fight without our Soldier, we keep our numbers even. We drop the Demoman off at BLU base in a body bag. Perhaps even attach a note, warning them not so send people snooping around our base.”

“Go straight tae hell you frog-fucking bastard.”

Tavish’s statement surprised even him, the multi-word sentence he’d spoken all night. But he couldn’t help himself: that was his _friend_ Spy was talking about. Graham, so cocksure and sappy and all together too big for his britches. He hadn’t even _done_ anything when he’d been here, and Spy ready to fucking kill him.

Engineer was the only one not staring at Tavish, since he was about equally sick of the Spy. “You’re talking about _executing an unarmed prisoner_ , and then sending back that poor son of a bitch’s _mutilated body_ back home? To what, prove a point?”

“I never said mutilated,” Spy said passively. “Though it _would_ send a stronger message.”

A noise of disgust boiled in the back of Tavish’s thought. He’d known this man for six years, and he had no idea Spy could be this downright evil.

“Hey hey, c’mon guys. Spy’s got a point.” Somehow, it was Scout coming to the rogue’s defense. “I mean, not about the creepy Godfather-style ‘here’s your buddy’s dead body’ thing, but...it’s not like we can _keep_ him. He’s a BLU! What if he busts out and takes out a few of ours on the way to freedom? Or what if BLU decide to attack us to get him back?”

“So now you think you can do this logically, son?” Engie glared at the Scout, who shuffled under his gaze. “Spy said so himself, BLU’s not planning on attacking us at all yet.”

“Well what if they’ve changed their minds, and think we kidnapped their Demoman?” Somehow the argument had reframed itself over Scout and Engie. The two always got along so well, their usual arguments always tinged with a feeling of fondness. But now Scout was burning with defiance, glaring at the older man across from him.

“Well then maybe we should just let him go!” Engie said, throwing his hands up in the air. “A sign of goodwill, that we don’t want to fight this stupid Sudden Death any more than they do.”

“Now you’re being ridiculous,” Medic sniffed.

“And suspicious,” Spy put in, which drew even Tavish’s attention. The room held its breath as Spy’s Italian leather shoes clipped across the ground. He stopped in front of the Engineer. “There was one last thing I neglected to mention. Something said between our two prisoners before I apprehend them. The message was ‘I’m not going anywhere’.”

Spy watched Engie’s face intently, looking for and subtle change in expression. He was so engrossed in his deduction’s, he missed Tavish’s sharp intake of breath.

Engie scoffed. “Yeah? And what’s that mean to me?”

“It is not the message itself that is important. It is the fact that Soldier was _delivering_ it. Delivering it here.” Spy looked around the room, making eye contact briefly with every mercenary there. “They mentioned four people for their ‘plan’ to escape in to the mountains. We know the BLU Demoman was in contact with Jane, but that leaves one more. There is another mole on RED team.”

It was fast, the way they went from rapt attention to staring at a neighbor in suspicion. Tavish tried to keep the appropriate look of shock across his tired face, masking the throngs of panic welling up inside him.

Engie looked like he was ready to murder Spy on the spot. “First you accuse me of being a coward, and now a traitor? I’m about through with your horseshit Spy. You’re doing a mighty lot of _projecting_.”

The feeling of hatred was mutual. Spy glared right back, then took on last look around the war room.

“Regardless of my inability to have you see reason, I know two things. One, there is another traitor among us. And two, it is not me. I am going to speak with Soldier again, continue to bicker amongst yourself if it pleases you.”

With that, Spy was gone, leaving an air of anxious superstition behind him. Tavish knew he needed to come up with a plan. And fast.

* * *

Down in his room, the RED Soldier twisted about on his bed fruitlessly. He was handcuffed to the metal frame, and no matter what he did, he couldn’t find a way to get comfortable, let alone get free. If he sat on the edge of the bed it was alright, but it pulled his shoulders hard to the left. He couldn’t stand either, unless he was hunched practically into a bow. The only thing that made it bearable was if he lied down fully and let the cuffs pull his arms above his head.

It was a small comfort when his stomach felt like it wanted to jump right out of him and go on a paddleboat ride. How had things gone so pear shaped so quickly? One second they’d had a plan (a timid, shaky plan but a plan nonetheless) and the next Spy was there, pointing a gun at the most important person in Soldier’s life.

At least Spy hadn’t been there for the kiss. That would have been Soldier’s breaking point, probably. The thought that his team knew that not only was he friends with a BLU, but more than friends with him…

He twisted against the cuffs again.

Even without that, being discovered had still been agonizing. All those faces, the people he considered his family, looking at him with varying degrees of disgust and betrayal. And the worst part is he knew they were _right_.

It had occurred to him, while he was being questioned, that even though he wanted to buckle down and set his jaw against his captors, he couldn’t. He was the turncoat this time, somehow in the workings of RED and BLU and the happiness he’d found, he’d become a traitor to his team. That’s why it’d been so hard to refuse them, to deflect every question of _who’s Jane_ and _what else did you tell BLU_ when he wanted to come clean and tell his friends the truth. It would be so much easier if these were the blank, monotonous faces he’d come to imagine as the enemies of America, instead of the people he’d been working with for years.

When had things become so confusing? Probably when he’d started to see the BLUs as people. If, on that uneventful Humiliation, he’d refused when the BLU Demoman had asked him to wrestle, if he hadn’t let things get so far…

He wouldn’t have seen how kind Graham had been to him. How he’d discovered Soldier’s embarrassment, and made a couple of gentle jokes, but in the end had tried to help. Then after that, the weird flings that had melted in to so much more, always with the promise that they’d never go easy on each other when it came to the fight.

Then he’d learned about Tavish and Jane, and the eventual friendship that formed between the four of them…

It had been inevitable. He’d become too tainted, to soft to be a RED anymore.

There was sound outside of his room. Soldier perked his head; no one had let him out to pee yet, and it’d been hours since his capture. He couldn’t sit here by himself, alone with his thoughts. He would worry himself to death like this, especially when he didn’t know what they’d done with Graham.

Footsteps paused outside of his door. Soldier held his breath, but the doorknob didn’t move. Eventually, the footsteps receded again, and Soldier thought dimly maybe that was a good thing. There weren’t many people out there sympathetic to him at the moment. The thought was short lived as not long later the footsteps returned, this time accompanied by a seconds set. The door opened, revealing Spy and Heavy.

Soldier sat up under their gaze. Whatever they were here for, it couldn’t be good.

“What do you want, maggots?” he demanded, trying to keep the weakness from his voice. “You’re interrupting my nap.”

Spy cast a sidelong glance at Heavy, and Soldier could already feel the impatience radiating off him. “So dreadfully sorry,” Spy said, voice dripping with sarcasm. “But unfortunately you relinquished your right to chose when you get to speak to us when you decided to sell us out to BLU.”

“I sold out NO ONE!” Soldier bellowed immediately. “You heard me!” It had been his most common defense during the interrogation, just a blanket statement that he wasn’t a traitor. It hurt him that Spy thought he meant his team ill will, even after he’d heard Soldier doing his best to protect them.

Spy waved his hand. “So I did. But that’s hardly convincing, and I did not come here to rehash hold arguments.”

Soldier jutted out his chin. “More questions? Forget about it, I’m not answering anymore.” He would have folded his arms across his chest if the cuffs had let him.

“That is outside of your control,” Spy replied. Heavy said nothing, and Soldier, in turn, didn’t look at him. If he wanted to be Spy’s intimation factor, fine. Let him. “And just the one question this time.” Spy stepped closer to Soldier, and it took all his willpower not to flinch away. There was something deeply unsettling about the way Spy leaned in to him and demanded, “who were you delivering that message to?”

Soldier’s mouth felt dry, and he couldn’t keep a small crack in his voice from forming when he said, “w-what do you mean?”

“The BLU Demoman told you to deliver a message to someone.” Spy stepped even closer, and Soldier couldn’t help but recoil this time. “Who. Was. It.”

“It was t-to me,” Soldier struggled, the suddenness of the question shaking him loose. “Just like, you know, a joke? Like hey I got a message for you: eat shit. Haha…” The nervous laughter came without him calling it.

Spy pulled back with a glare. “A joke…you’re a terrible liar Soldier. We all know this.” It was true, but there was no way Spy would get the truth out of him. He hadn’t sold out Jane, and god forbid he wasn’t going to sell out Tavish. Not when there might be real consequences for his teammate.

“I’m not lying…” Soldier muttered.

“And I’m through with playing games.” Spy’s back was straight as he looked down at the man who had to hunch over on the bed. “There are other ways of getting the truth. Ones I will resort to if it means winning Sudden Death.”

It took a second for the realization to wash over Soldier. When it did, he set his jaw and planted his boot-less feet firmly on the ground. “If you think you can torture ME, private, then you’ve got another thing coming. I’ve got a body count of over two-dozen Nazi scum who tried to waterboard me and wound up getting their THROATS chewed out! I will suffer every physical pain on EARTH before caving to the likes of _you_ , MAGGOT. I will LAUGH at your pathetic excuse for torture you-”

“Soldier!” Spy snapped. “For the love of god, shut up!” He stared down his nose at Soldier, shocked in to silence. “I do not care how much you crave your stupid masochism fetish. Whatever I think, RED team is not convinced of your guilt, and wouldn’t look kindly if you were to come to harm.”

“Then why…?” Soldier blinked.

“Because I am not talking about you.” When the wheels in Soldier’s head weren’t turning fast enough for his taste Spy said, “however, if a lone BLU were injured during questioning, I doubt that would ruffle any feathers.”

Soldier’s eyes widened. No…god no not him… “No…”

“Oh yes,” Spy said, his face a grim line. “I assume he will have much to tell us about BLU once I get a few hours with him. Perhaps about the Administrator’s plan, if you two are also party to that.”

Soldier twisted helplessly against the cuffs. “No not him. Just torture me instead, okay? He’s just…” He’s just a civilian. He wouldn’t know how to handle questions, how to steel your mind and not break against their demands. “Please Spy…he’s my friend…”

“Then if you care about him, you’ll spare him that fate.” Spy leaned forward now, and Soldier couldn’t escape from him no matter how far back on the bed he scooted. “I’m only looking for one question: _who is your other accomplice_?”

No, Soldier couldn’t tell him that. He shook his head. That would betray Tavish, maybe set him up with the same fate. But he couldn’t let this happen to Graham either, not when Spy’s cruelty to the other team was so furious. He had to chose now. RED or BLU? Who to sacrifice?

How had it become like this? That no matter what he did, he was betraying somebody.

He shook his head, eyes burning. “Spy…I can’t…”

“You _can_ ,” Spy insisted.

Soldier shook his head. He closed his eyes so he wouldn’t have to look ahead of him.

Spy stood up, leaving the Soldier’s space. His face was turned in to sneer, of lingering disappointment. “Fine. Then I will have to do this the old fashion way.”

Soldier’s head jerked up and saw his teammates heading for the door. “Spy wait! Please don’t…he’s just a civilian, leave him alone…” Spy was already gone, and Soldier’s heart sank in despair. How quickly he had lost his resolution, how the threat to Graham had brought him to beg. “Heavy…” he called out in one desperate attempt.

Heavy stopped at the door. Turning, he gave Soldier one final look.

“Heavy he’s my friend. Don’t let Spy…don’t…”

Heavy’s face was cold and impassive. “We were all friends, Soldier. See how well that turned out.”

With that he was gone, and Soldier slumped forward as the tears began to stream down his face.


	6. The Reentry of the Mom Friend™

A hush was swelling in the canyon. Some in BLU base slept as crickets chirped in the dry grass, nocturnal creatures prowling the edges of the base now that the harsh desert sun was gone. A deep cold could be felt pouring from the caves beneath, should anyone walk past and feel their chill. No one did. Most were trying to catch a few winks, if only to help them stay more alert in the long run.

But not the BLU Soldier.

He sorted through his weapon’s locker, looking at each one in turn. His stock rocket launcher was already strapped to his back, and his trusty shovel folded up neatly alongside it. He weighed the two shotguns each hand, a thumb running over the Reserve Shooter and feeling its familiar indents. His classic shotgun was even more familiar, but he couldn’t let sentimentality weigh in to it. This mission could be his last, and he needed to be objective.

In the end, he set the Reserve Shooter down anyway. He’d need those extra shots if it came to a fight. Hesitantly, his hand brushed over the Righteous Bison instead. _What a name for a gun_ , he thought. But there was nothing righteous about this; Demoman had been gone, far, far too long. It was blind love that had pulled him from the safety of the base, but maybe it was cowardice that Soldier hadn’t followed him. It was stupid to go. Stupid now to be going after him. But Soldier had a responsibility to his teammate, who’d shown him more forgiveness than he deserved.

He could only pray that Demo was still alive to be saved.

He picked up the Righteous Bison anyway and strapped it to his hip. It was light, and—fuck the rules—they were in a godless arena where a fucking space weapon could mean the difference between life and death. And, hell, as long he was putting up a big middle finger to the regulations that had controlled his life for who knows how long, he grabbed the Half Zatoichi as well and attached it to the hip opposite the Bison.

It had been more than common sense that had kept him from going with Demo. It had begun with the announcement. The way the Administrator’s voice had warbled unfamiliarly, as though being fed through several microphones at once. The metallic twang of it had struck something in the shoulder, and brought him back to one horrible night in his apartment when a similarly robotic voice had delivered equally terrible news.

There something more here that Soldier wasn’t seeing. And the fear of being tricked again had petrified him to indecision. What a rescue mission he was.

He turned from the lockers and pushed opposite toward the exit of respawn. No sentimentality, no tearful goodbye. Now that he had conquered his paralysis, he had to keep going.

He’d just made it to the upper reaches of the base where he could smell the night air pouring in from above, when he stopped.

“Going somewhere Solly?”

The Engineer was leaned against the exit, helmet on and fully dressed in his standard-issue overalls. Soldier’s muscles twitched.

“You really need to point that thing at me?” Engie asked, voice calm yet unamused.

Soldier looked down. He hadn’t even realized he’d drawn the Bison, or that he was now aiming it at his teammate. Taking a pause and a deep breath, and he tucked it back away.

Now he was just left to stare back at the Engineer. There was no reading the man, not with the goggles on and only the faint florescent light from outside. So Soldier didn’t. He just stood there and waited.

“Any chance you’ll tell me where you’re headed off to?” Engie asked him.

Soldier shrugged, making his various weapons tinkle. “Out.”

Engie didn’t justify that with a response. He pushed himself off the wall and walked into the lower base, where Soldier could see him only slightly better. “Demo’s been gone for quite a while now, ain’t he?” he asked softly. “I’ve been checking everyone now and again, for hours now, but he just ain’t around anymore.”

Soldier’s mouth was a hard line.

“You know where he is.” This one, finally, wasn’t a question, but it was the one Soldier had an answer for.

“Affirmative. But that’s classified information, professor, and I’m going to have to ask you move your little ass out of my way.”

“Don’t take a whole lota guesswork to know where you’re headed, Sol,” Engie frowned, folding his arms over his chest. “Not when you’re carrying half our weapon’s supply on your back.”

Soldier growled. “We get it toymaker, you’re a goddamned Sherlock Holmes. Now, if you’ll _excuse_ me, I have a half-brained drunkard to go save.”

Engie put a hand on Soldier’s shoulder as he tried to pass. Soldier could have shoved him aside easily if he wanted to, but the way Engie had spoken to him up until now made him refrain. His voice was soft, and worried. There wasn’t a drop of suspicion in it, just a knowing that his friends were about to be in some deep shit.

“No. You ain’t.” Engie held up a hand to cut off Soldier’s rebuke. “Not without me.”

Soldier barked out a laugh that didn’t have the level of disdain he was aiming for. “Ha! This is going to be a battle, private, not a cow-herding convention.”

“Solly, you ain’t charging up to RED base alone,” Engie insisted. “That’s a strategy that already lost us one good man. Well? Am I right about that?”

Damn him. He’d gotten it right on the nose. “Doesn’t matter,” Soldier huffed. “If I die out there it will be because of my own goddamned weaknesses, and therefore I will be one less maggot sucking the lifeblood out of this Earth. Now _move_ four-eyes, I have a war to win.”

As Soldier pushed past him, Engie followed with a, “you take one more step out that goddamned door, I’m sounding the alarm.”

Soldier froze. He gritted his teeth, reining in every once of his exceptionally limited self-control, and on his heel to glare at the Engineer. “You’re bluffing.”

“Sure as shit ain’t.” Engie stared just as resolutely back at him. “Now, do you really want the rest of the team coming down here and asking all sorts of questions, or would you rather have me along watching your sorry excuse for a behind?”

“Why do you even _want_ to come?” Soldier demanded, at a loss for what to do besides be angry.

“That even a question? Because you boys are in trouble, and I look after my own.”

Soldier flexed his hands, resisting the urge to grab a weapon and feel at least an ounce of security. Instead he looked at the Engineer, who had be just as fucking stubborn as Soldier was. Eventually, he realized there was no getting out of this one, not when minutes were ticking by and the whole war might as well rest on his shoulders.

He breathed out. “Fine. On ONE condition,” he added, cutting off Engie’s reply. “No killing REDs. No exceptions. Unless you have _express_ permission from me, I don’t want a single one of them dead at your hands.”

“That’s a pretty strange condition,” Engineer said neutrally.

“Yeah. It is.” Soldier didn’t dignify it with more than that. If Engineer wanted to be detective smart-ass, he could figure it out on his own time.

Finally, Engie shrugged. “Alright Solly, you got yourself a deal. And some back up.”

“Hddduuh huu hhdda huh.”

The two men nearly jumped out of their skin as Pyro’s voice came out the shadows. Soldier whipped his head around to see the blue rubber suit shining slightly in the moonlight, its wearer watching at the scene before them with arms crossed. Soldier exhaled, hand slowly drawing away from the grip of the Bison.

“Oh. Hey Pyro,” Engie said sheepishly, almost like he was embarrassed at not being the only one snooping about. “Uh, long have you been standing there?”

“Duhur da hur.”

“Oh. That long huh?”

“Hudda hudda. Hudda huh uh, hudda huh.” Pyro walked up the both of them so they could but their hands on their hips tap their foot impatiently. “Hur dur, habba dur hadda.”

They poked Engie roughly in the shoulder, then glared at Soldier with reflective eyes.

“Welp,” Engie said, a laugh fighting through the embarrassment, “I don’t think we’re convincing him otherwise.” He looked over at Soldier. “I guess that brings the adventuring count up to three.”

“Mary mother of Joseph,” Soldier swore to himself as he turned toward the exit.

* * *

Heavy curtains of darkness, fabric so thick it was choking him. Somewhere out in the darkness was Graham’s voice, and no matter where Mary turned it would suddenly come from somewhere else entirely. Things he couldn’t see pulled at his throat and neck, tripping him backwards, sending him falling, falling, falling-

The RED Soldier jerked up in bed, pulling from the nightmare with a dry gasp. The rest of him was anything but dry, a cold sweat suffocating him and making him stick to the sheets. In his trashing, he’d gotten tangled in the blankets, now wrapped around his whole body.

Just as quickly as he sat up, he was yanked down again, the handcuffs a painful reminder.

It took seconds of careful breathing before he was able to remember where he was, and why he was restrained. When he did, it was like missing a step on the stair: waking only to be in another nightmare.

His eyes still burned with tears, salt irritating them until they were red and puffy. He couldn’t have been asleep for long, a few hours of troubled dozing, enough to make him weak and dehydrated. What had they done to Graham in that time? Was he lying, bleeding somewhere in the base as Spy drew every bit of pain he could from the man? Did he know it was all Soldier’s fault?

Soldier shook himself. He couldn’t think. Had to block it all out. That was the only way he could cope is he could concentrate on the here and now, and not think about Graham. Graham, who was somewhere out of reach. Hurting. Maybe even worse than hurting…

Soldier rolled on his side, burying his face in the pillow in an attempt to block it all out. But, as his ear’s turned toward the hallway, he realized he hadn’t woken just because of the nightmare. There was a soft sound at his door, a tinkling, just enough to disturb a light sleep brought on by stress. Briefly, Soldier wondered if it was Spy, bringing with him only bad tidings. But Spy hadn’t needed to fiddle with the door before, so why would he now?

For a brief instant when the door opened, Soldier thought it was Graham. The air froze in his lungs, long enough for his brain to catch up with his eyes and recognize the red uniform.

“Demo?” he asked as his teammate got off the floor. “How did you…?” Even as he asked, he watched the door swing in and a chain fall off the doorknob.

“Spy’s been watchin’ you like a hawk, waitin’ for someone to make a move,” Demo explained. He moved further in to the room a pair of bolt cutters grasped firmly in hand. “He knows I’m tryin’ tae help you. Nae me specifically, but that you’ve got a friend somewhere on the team.”

At the mention of Spy, something stirred in the back of Soldier’s mind. “Wait.” He shrunk back against the bed before Demo could approach. “H-How do I know you’re really Demo? This could a, a trick! To get me to talk! It won’t work mister, you won’t get a single-”

“Your full name is Mary Major,” Demo interrupted. “You got the scar on the left side o’ your head from playin’ football in high school. Your favorite raccoon is Lieutenant Bites, who ate the only tie you own last month. And you have replica head on your mantel of the first man you ever killed, one you made yourself out of paper maché and pinecones. _Now_ will you let me get those cuffs off you?”

Soldier let out a shaky breath, one he hadn’t know he’d been holding. “Okay, okay yeah. Sorry, I just had to make sure.”

“S’all right,” Demo replied, a bit softer. “It was a good call tae check.” He put his knee on the edge of the bed and slipped the bolt cutters over the chain.

Soldier watched in silence, relief fighting to be heard but still impossible when they were so far in to enemy lines. Heh. Enemy lines. When had RED base become that?

“What time is it?” he asked as Demo fit the blade in between the metal and Soldier’s skin.

“Six I think? Sorry it took so long, Spy was lurking around the whole time. He had to have been invisible, since he wasn’t anywhere else on base. I was only able to come get you because he got frustrated and went to the infirmary. Probably tae question Graham again.”

The first cuff went with a _click_ at the exact instant Soldier whispered, “no.” He struggled to stand up, making Demo’s job even harder. “No! We have to go now, right now!”

“Easy lad! Just let me finish this first, then we’ll figure out a way tae get him out.”

“No, you don’t understand!” Solider fought harder. “They’re going to _torture_ him. I would not tell them what they wanted to hear and now they’re going to torture him instead.”

Demo’s eye widened. “He…he wouldnae do that,” he said, almost trying to convince himself. “Oh Jesus he would. Fuck.” The other handcuff fell away, and Soldier was up instantly.

“Come on, we have to go _now_!” Soldier was halfway out the door now. There was still time. If Spy had only left a little bit ago then there was still time to stop it.

“Soldier! Wait just a bloody minute!” Demo grabbed his arm as he tried to barrel through the hallway. “We cannae just go after him. Heavy’s probably there too, and the two of us cannae bust him out with our bare hands.”

Soldier knew all this was true, but he didn’t give a rat’s ass. “If they so much as touch him they will _wish_ I had done them the mercy of shooting them,” he half-shouted.

“Okay fine you can do that! But we need a plan first-”

Any more bright ideas were cut short as the world exploded around them.

* * *

A mile away, three solitary BLUs jerked at the noise.

“You fellas hear that?” Engie asked, stopping just outside the giant pipes that lead through the mountains.

Hesitantly, Pyro nodded. Then they all stumbled, as the sound was followed by a trembling in the earth. Whatever it was, it must have been one hell of an explosion to be felt all the way out here.

Soldier didn’t say that thought aloud. There was too much dread in it to voice it.

Because whatever had made that sound was in the exact direction they were heading.

Engie looked over the edge of the smoke stacks. “Do you think one of us should head back and make sure they heard it back at base- Soldier! What in damnation?”

But Soldier ignored him. There was only one goal now, and he charged off at a pace that fit his determination, toward the objective in RED base.

* * *

The world pitched again, and Demo threw himself against the stupefied Soldier. They narrowly avoided a chunk of ceiling tile that crashed from above and splattered into shards of wood. Instead of slowing down, the vibrations in the walls seemed to increase, and Demo looked around in alarm.

“What the _fuck_ was that?” he demanded because this sure as shit was _not_ in the escape plan.

Soldier just shook his head, eyes darting around at their unseen attacker. Of course, there was none. Because it wasn’t them under attack, it was the _entire fucking building_. Just as Demo realized it, he detected a sound coming from deep within the base. The same direction Soldier had been heading not a moment before.

Soldier realized it at the same moment Demo did, and was struggling to his feet in an instant. Demo came after him, grabbing his arm once again.

“What the hell are you doin’ man?” he yelled at his friend. “We need tae head _out_ o’ the base, nae intae it!”

Soldier fought against both Demo and gravity as he tried to regain his balance. “That was coming from where the infirmary is! He’s up there, I have to go _now_.” He twisted harder, entire sense of honor dragging him toward the sound of what could only be collapsing building.

Now there was _definitely_ no way Demo could let them go further in to the building. He didn’t know if BLU was attacking or if they were being bombed from orbit, but he did know that whatever was making that sound was deadlier than any Spy. There was no chance in hell they could make it into that and back out again, not when even here felt like seconds away from falling apart. He yanked Soldier’s arm, hard, forcing him to face him. “Mary. Mary! Look at me! We need tae leave, there’s nothin’ we can do by goin’ back in there.”

“No!” Soldier said, on the verge of hysteria. “The only reason he’s in danger is because of me, I can’t leave him Tavish.”

With every second past, the floor pitched, and it became more and more likely they’d be crushed even before they could move. Demo’s mind flashed with the thought that if he was in Soldier’s situation, he’d risk anything to go back in there for Jane. The thought only made him realize how futile this was. He had to make Soldier see reason.

“Mary, please,” he begged. “He wouldnae want you thowin’ your life away. He’d want you tae get out while you can so that…” He was stuck with an idea. “So you could come back for him, alright? We get out of here, and we’ll come back here and find him as soon as we can.”

Soldier’s eyes widened, and Demo prayed that he would make up his mind fast. Just then, the wall of Soldier’s room buckled in toward them, and Soldier shoved them out of the way. The wall landed where they’d been just a moment ago, but the floor they’d landed on was already shaking underneath them. They both coughed, trying to stand again as even more debris threatened to invade their lungs.

Soldier grabbed the front of Demo’s shirt, partially for support, but also so he could look in his eyes. “We’ll find him,” Soldier insisted. “Do you promise?”

“I promise,” Demo said firmly.

And, finally, when Demo pulled on Soldier’s arm, there wasn’t any resistance. They began running, slamming into walls every time the floor tossed under them. How long would it take this place to come down? How many minutes had they wasted arguing? Demo tried not to think as they raced through the corridors, coming to the staircase only to find it collapsed.

“Shit,” Demo hissed to himself, looking up helplessly at their escape to the surface.

“Can we climb it?” Soldier asked, but the closest piece or stairway hung twenty feet above them.

Demo was just on the verge of making a new plan when something red came around the corner and smashed into them.

“Holy shit, you’re alive,” Scout said, all his words coming together in a blur. He looked ready to run off again, until his eyes landed on Soldier. “What the hell is _he_ doing here?”

Demo’s mind turned fast. “Well I couldnae just leave him while the whole base is collapsin’!” he said without a trace of hesitation.

If it had been anyone other than Scout, they might have questioned how he had been able to get down to Soldier’s room so fast, or if he had known ahead of time the base was coming down. But Scout was just Scout, so instead he made a face and tried to push past the two of them.

“Woah, woah lad! And where are you headed off tae? Exit’s this way.”

“Fuck dude, that shit’s coming from inside the base,” Scout spouted, distress everywhere in his voice. “Engie’s in there, I gotta make sure he’s okay.”

A deep note of despair welled up inside Demo. No. Nope. He wouldn’t be doing this again. Instead of speaking to his teammate, he grabbed Scout around the waist and started off down the descending staircase.

“WHAT THE FUCK IS YOUR PROBLEM??” Scout demanded, all the while Demo hauled him farther into the basement. Demo ignored him.

“Where are you going?” Soldier asked instead, looking at the both of them as they go further from the exit. “I thought…”

“I’ve got a plan, just trust me,” he called back up, almost reaching the point where the stairs ended. And, thank god, Soldier did, coming after him and the still-struggling Scout. At some point they reached were the wooden steps were about ready to give out under them, and they had to jump to the lower chunks. Soldier, bless him, helped hold Scout still so he didn’t go running off to his own doom.

“This is for your own good, lad,” Demo told Scout, and promptly was cussed out.

And then- _there_. Finally there. One of the tunnels that had been bored into the base’s basement was standing there like a last beacon. They ran for it, Scout still being dragged along behind, just as the supports of the base couldn’t take it anymore. The entire weight of the building fell in, and the three made it inside as the opening closed behind them. They kept running, pieces of broken concrete chasing at their heels.

Finally, it stopped, the support of the hardened earth above them their only savior.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> End of Part 1


	7. Demo Kills Another Friend

The shock settled, the last three REDs left coughing as dust filtered in through the pile of stone behind them. It was dark as sin, and Demo pushed himself off his knees to squint through it all. He vaguely remembered something about cables in the tunnels, and began kicking around in hopes of finding one.

Meanwhile, Scout struggled to his feet. “You.” Cough. “Fucking.” More coughing. “ _Bastards_.”

“Aha!” Demo said as he found what he was looking for. He followed it to a mining floodlight, and switched it on. Even the freaks that built these tunnels needed to see.

As the generator mumbled to life, the survivors were hit with a wall of white florescent uniformity. It didn’t do any favors to Scout’s face, who was burning Demo with his eyes even through all the blinking.

“You fucking bastard!” He repeated, taking one wobbling step toward his intended target. “You just fucking! What…what the fuck is your damage??”

“I’m just tryin’ tae keep everyone alive, alright?” Demo said, looking at the three of them. Three down from nine. How were they crumbling so quickly?

“Well you’re doing a _pretty shitty job of it_ when you _won’t go back for anyone else!_ ” Scout screamed, but took too much dust in his lungs and started coughing again.

Demo didn’t want to hear it. He didn’t want to think about any truth there might be in that statement. “Jesus fucking Christ Scout, use your bloody head for once in your life!” He was sick being blamed for everything in the goddamned world. He whirled on his teammates. “If I let you two idiots have your way, you’d be dead too!”

He made the same mistake as Scout, and inhaled a lung full of debris. While he was doubled over, he heard Soldier’s voice.

“They’re not dead.”

He looked up to see Soldier, eyes round and glistening in the floodlight. There was a sinking feeling in his stomach as he realized his mistake.

“They’re not dead. You said we’d go back for him. You promised.”

“If I dinnae, you would’ve gone in after him.” The words were out of his mouth, and he wasn’t going to take them back. There was no sense hiding the truth now.

Soldier’s eyes seemed like the whole universe, accusing him, and so deeply, unbelievably hurt. “You lied to me.”

Demo opened his mouth again, but he didn’t have any more excuses. He closed it, his face such a hard line it might have been sewn shut with straw.

Soldier continued to stare at him until he realized he wasn’t going to say anything more. He looked like he wanted to say something, but was still struggling to form words beyond the small betrayal in front of him. Instead, he dropped against the wall of the cave and tucked his knees against his head. Scout just looked at Demo in disgust and walked off deeper into the mountain.

Demo sighed, but there wasn’t anywhere to go but after him. He tried to nudge Soldier to his feet, but the man shrunk away at his touch.

“I’ll come,” he said, not looking up. _But not because of you_ , was left unsaid.

Demo followed the receding outline of Scout, towards the only way there might be hope.

* * *

The tunnels seemed to go on forever. Soldier felt like they’d been walking for hours, and thought of every second sliding away from him like sand in his fingers. If Graham was alive, he’d need help lifting half the base that was sitting on him.

Dammit, not **if**. He wouldn’t think his boyfriend was dead, no matter what Tavish said.

He walked ahead with Scout, just so he wouldn’t have to be close to the Demoman. Demo who was a liar and had made him leave when he could have at least done something to help…

“’M sorry,” he muttered to Scout. He was in the same position basically, and Soldier felt bad about the part he’d played in the kid’s abduction.

Scout looked at him, surprise only momentarily lessened.

“Yeah. Whatever.”

Soldier hadn’t really been looking for forgiveness, it was just something he’d wanted to say. They walked for a few more minutes before he said, “don’t worry son, we’ll find Engie. He’s going to be okay.”

It was he needed to hear right now, and he figured Scout did to.

“Yeah,” Scout replied, softer this time. It took him a moment, but eventually he added, “I just don’t want the last thing I said to him to be…well, you heard it.” When Soldier just looked sideways at him, he said, “oh. Yeah right, you were down in timeout. Well, basically I was telling him he was a pussy because he didn’t want to fucking do anything about BLU. And we both said some shit…”

Scout trailed off in to silence. The tunnel continued to lead upwards, both that and tunnels didn’t branch a welcome mercy.

Scout scoffed suddenly. “Funny. Real fucking hilarious that Engie was the one who kept saying we should give BLU a chance, and he’s the one they fucking blow up.”

“You don’t know BLU did this,” Soldier said immediately. It certainly hadn’t been his first suspect.

“Oh yeah?” Scout asked skeptically. “Then who did?”

Soldier shrugged. “The Administrator’s people. Or an accident. Could have been anyone, really.”

“And accident?” Scout said painfully. “Really Solly? And people call _me_ dumb.”

Soldier didn’t say anything, and the look in his eyes must have made Scout regret being so unnecessarily nasty. The tunnel was still sloping up, but they never seemed to get any closer, and the two walked with Demoman chasing behind them like a ghost.

“So…” Scout started again, and Soldier didn’t know what more he could want to talk about. “Your BLU buddy was in there too, huh?”

“Oh,” Soldier said dumbly. “Yeah. He was.”

Scout nodded. “So. Now that it’s just you and me, can you tell me what’s up with that?”

Soldier hesitated. “I don’t know. Maybe. If we find everyone, I don’t you yammering off at them about everything.” He fiddled with his helmet, seeking it out like a comfort blanket. He was thankful the others had let him keep it; even they weren’t that cruel. “Why don’t you just…ask stuff and if it’s okay I’ll answer it?”

Scout thought that was reasonable. “Sure. So, um, okay. Why’d you sell us out to him?”

Soldier immediately puffed out his chest. “I did _not_ sell you out!”

“You freaking told him we were going to attack,” Scout pointed out.

“Well! Yeah but…that was so he could help stop it!” Despite the fact that he wasn’t being interrogated anymore, Soldier still didn’t know how to explain himself. “And he told me that BLU wasn’t going to attack, so it was fair.”

“Uh-huh. And were you going to tell _us_ that?” Soldier’s silence was all Scout needed. “That’s what I thought. Why the hell are you still shelling for BLU?”

“It’s not BLU, it’s just…him.” Soldier wasn’t going to incriminate Jane, not if he could help it. “He’s…my friend. We met during Humiliation one day and he was just so…nice to me. I didn’t think BLUs were nice, just cannon fodder. And after that day we just kept meeting, and meeting, and meeting, and soon he was my best friend in the whole wide world.”

“More than Demo?” Scout said, jerking his thumb back.

Soldier’s face darkened. “Yeah. Definitely a better friend than he is now.”

Scout laughed, but it lacked heart in it.

Soldier kicked a rock as they walked. “We were meeting up so we could figure things out, make all this shit go away so we wouldn’t have to fight each other. That’s all. I don’t know anything about why this is going on, I just want to know what the right thing to do is. It’s hard because RED means a lot to me, but he means a lot to me too, you know?”

He still didn’t want to say the full extent of exactly how much he cared. Sure it was just Scout, and sometimes Soldier thought the kid liked Engie in more than a mentor-ly way, but he still wasn’t entirely sure. He just wanted to keep that part to himself, locked away back at their castle and not have this whole mess spilling it everywhere.

“Fine. I getcha,” Scout allowed. “But that doesn’t change the fact that his buddies came in and blew up our base.”

“They didn’t! Or, they wouldn’t, not with him inside.” That much he was sure about, especially after all the stuff Graham had told him about his team being his family. Then again, Soldier considered RED his family too, and look where that got him.

Scout didn’t have any reply to that.

They must have walked for an hour. Maybe two. But finally the smell of fresh air brushed against his nose, and Scout broke into a run. Soldier followed, bursting into the dry desert with relief.

Dawn was just beginning to break above the badlands. Everything was tinted in blue, a creepy half-light that made the ruins of RED base an analogous shadow.

And what ruin it was. The giant satellite that had been the second capture was now the centerpiece of destruction, lying on its side with its dish bent. The base, already partially underground, had caved in on itself to make a crater in the earth. The opening to the tunnel lay across the battlefield from it, giving them the full view.

“Shit…” Demo said from behind Soldier.

Soldier didn’t look back, but he did turn his head when the rocks beside him began to slide, Scout already scrambling down the slope. That got Soldier after him, and soon they were all running to the place that had so briefly been their home.

Suppressing the feeling of choking on his own heart, Soldier began to look immediately. He tried to pull up a mental map of where everything was in the base, but that was tricky when he felt all his blood was trying to burst out of his veins. But Scout seemed to know, peeling toward the back of the rubble, and the infirmary couldn’t be too far from Engie’s lab.

The next problem presented itself then. Each foot forward took twice as long as it should have, the rubble impossible to climb in some places and they had to find ways around. Demo said something about it was unsafe to be walking on ground that still might collapse into the floors below, but the other two bitterly ignored him.

“Is this…I think this is it!” Soldier said suddenly. He recognized the quad, the four biggest hallways coming together into a large arch. The arch itself was still intact, but Soldier wouldn’t trust it enough to stand underneath.

“Shitshitshitshit…” Scout muttered, and took off in the direction of the lab. Soldier sprinted in the other direction.

When he got there he tried to suppress the despair. It was in ruins, definitely taking some of the worst of the damage, and Soldier had do drag himself to start his rescue mission.

Hopelessness only sank in deeper.

“Graham!” he called desperately, not caring if anyone else heard. “Graham, please if your there, tell me.”

Silence.

He got more frantic. A dead camera stared at him and he gave it a hard kick. He kept going, stuck trying to lift a piece of concrete he obviously couldn’t move when he heard Demo coming up behind him.

“Soldier…”

“Shut up,” Soldier replied.

“Soldier I dunnae think-”

“I said shut up!” Soldier screamed, and then he slipped, losing his grip on the concrete. He stumbled to his knees, wanting nothing more than to stay down and sob. But Graham was depending on him, and he struggled back up.

“Mary,” Demo said softly. “There’s something you should come see.”

Soldier didn’t want to look, or to listen him. But the way he said it meant that there was really no choice. He followed after the Demoman, past the arch once again, and arrived near the lab.

There was a clearing, where bits of rubble had fallen to either side and left a tile floor blank. After a second of staring, Soldier recognized it as the finally capture point. He still had enough life in him to feel it trickle away when he saw what had been put there.

There were two mounds, covered in what looked like the plastic curtains torn from the infirmary. They were weighed down all around with bricks so they wouldn’t blow away in the early morning wind. The mounds were distinctly human shaped.

Scout was crouched in the corner, staring at them.

“Who…” Soldier managed before his voice cracked. No possibilities were good. No matter who was under there, it was someone he cared about.

Demo shook his head. “We havenae checked. Scout’s…well.”

Soldier understood. He didn’t want to look either. As long as they were covered there was the unknown, the knowledge that since it might not be someone, it wasn’t anyone. But Soldier also couldn’t just stand here with every nerve in his body screaming.

He stood next to Scout and put a hand on his shoulder.

Scout stirred at the touch. “Yeah,” he whispered. “I know.”

The two of them stood, drawing close to the makeshift burial. Demo lingered behind them—maybe feeling it wasn’t his place, or maybe afraid they would turn on him. Either way, he hovered on the edge of the scene like the red death himself.

Scout, shaking, stepped near the head of one of the bodies. His fingers curled around a brick, pulling them enough of them off the curtain to lift a corner.

He stumbled back, making a sound that Soldier never thought Scout was possible of making. It was an aching wail, short but devastated, and Scout wheeled backwards like he was going to throw up. Instead he ran. He sprinted through the debris, escaping the dust that seemed to choke everything around them.

Soldier lifted the tarp, revealing what he knew was there.

It was Engie. His face was battered, but not beyond recognition, eyes closed and goggles missing. Someone had placed his helmet on his chest, right above his folded hands. He looked like…well, like a building had fallen on him.

“It’s Engie…” Soldier said, even though Demo could see it now from where he stood.

Soldier felt a burning behind his eyes. Engie who had been their peacekeeper, who’d join Soldier for nights at the fire-pit, who made ribs for the team even though he never got any thanks for it. He deserved better. So much better than sitting in the middle of their ruined base while his murders were running free.

And even if that weren’t injustice enough, there was still one more body.

Soldier knew who it would be. Engie was here because it was who Scout had been dreading to see, whose death would hurt most. This next one was for Soldier. He felt it in his core, and the tears in his eyes threatened to spill over as he looked at the second body.

“Do you want me to do it?” he heard Demo ask behind him, but Soldier shook his head. He needed to do this.

He reached down, yanking of bricks and pulling up the white curtain-

To reveal Medic.

Shock washed over Soldier, so sure he would find Graham there. And he hated himself, but he felt relief, sinking into his skin and making him feel alive again.

“Jesus,” Demo said, looking down at Medic’s face. All the glass had been smashed out of his spectacles, but someone had placed them back over his face anyways. “Poor bastard.”

That was about Soldier’s feelings too. A few tears leaked down his face for slaughtered teammates, but he wasn’t about to go running for the hills like Scout had.

“The rest o’ the team must have been through here,” Demo said, his voice numb of feeling. “They had to have searched for survivors, and only found Engie and Medic.”

The words made sense, but they didn’t have any relevance to Soldier. He nodded dumbly.

“…Soldier, I think everyone else is okay. The only reason they didn’t find us is because we got out, but otherwise it looks like a rescue party’s already been through here.”

The Soldier got it suddenly. “You mean…the reason it’s just Engie and Medic is because they found everyone else?”

Demo nodded, and Soldier felt the first hope he’d had in hours. RED was okay. Graham was okay. The only problem was they were gone somewhere else, but that was fine. He knew he’d be reunited with them eventually—he was just stubborn like that.

Things actually seemed to be looking up until they heard a commotion coming from outside the clearing. Demo and Soldier exchanged a look before running, halting when they ran into Scout’s back.

He was struck like a deer in the headlights. And the BLU Pyro was pointing a gun at him.


	8. Territorial Control

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've finished writing the story! So now that I'm done, I'm going to be posting on Wednesdays too

Near what used to be the mess hall, Jane perked his head at the sound of shouting.

“I think Py’s found something,” Engie said, tossing aside the table he’d been looking under. Jane nodded, and the two of them were off, drawing weapons as they sprinted toward the noise.

Jane’s heart lurched at the scene before him. Pyro had cornered the RED Scout, who looked furious just at the sight of the BLUs. But that wasn’t what caught Jane’s attention. Behind him were Mary and Tavish, raising their hands, exhausted but alive. There was a swell of despair when he saw Graham wasn’t with them, but the sight of Tavish mostly unharmed overpowered everything else.

“Good work Pyro,” he said, his voice completely devoid of the strain he was feeling. “Maybe these maggots can answer a few questions.”

“Not fucking likely,” the Scout said, more unbridled hatred than Jane thought Scout’s were capable of. “I should fucking kill you right now.”

“Hur hdd,” Pyro said, unamused. 

Even with three shotguns pointed at his chest, the kid actually did look like he was about to make good on his threat. There was a wild animalism in his eyes, his arms not raised in surrender like the other two, just gripping a burning ferocity as he took a step forward.

“Watch it jackrabbit,” Engie said, voice low. “We’ll start shooting if you give us a reason.”

“ _Scout_ ,” Tavish hissed, “ _are you out of your bloody mind_?”

Jane risked a glance at him. He looked concerned, and Jane wished for the thousandth time he’d been able to leave Engie and Pyro at base. If they started shooting that might deal with the Scout, but Tavish looked like he was about ready to get in the crossfire. His face was long and weary—unsurprising when his whole base had just gone kaput.

“We’re just here looking for someone,” Jane told Scout. “You help us, you help yourself, and we go on our merry fucking way. No trouble necessary.”

“Ha!” Scout barked, and Jane swore he saw something unhinged in the kid’s eyes. “No trouble? You think you can claim you don’t want trouble after you blow up our fucking base??”

Jane looked at the ruins around him, following the Scout’s line of reasoning. “We didn’t do this son.”

“Bull fucking shit.” The Scout’s was trembling, and Pyro raised their gun a little higher.

“Listen short pants,” Jane said, watching his teammates impatience out of the corner of his eye. “If we had blown up your stupid base, we’d be the cleanup crew, coming through and blasting every last one of your heads off. But we’re not, so what does that tell you?”

He saw the first flicker of doubt cross the Scout’s face.

“If we had wanted you dead son, you already would be,” Engineer said, mercifully fulfilling the promise he’d made to Jane. “All we want to know is where our Demo is. If you can tell us that much, we’ll leave you alone.”

“Listen to them lad,” Tavish started saying. “Just back up-”

“Shut the fuck up,” Scout said, this time directing it at Tavish. When he looked back, his eyes seemed to linger on Engie for a half-second too long. “…Fucking fine. I still don’t think one of you knuckleheads had something to do with it, but we don’t know where your Demo is. Last thing we heard, he was still inside the base.”

Jane’s heart sunk until Mary finally decided to speak up. “He-he’s gotta be alive though! He wasn’t in the rubble or any of the other bodies we found, so he has to be okay. Maybe he got out through the tunnels, like we did!”

Jane looked at Mary for the first time that wasn’t just a passing glance. He looked just as shaken as Tavish, and his eyes were red from irritation. When he spoke his voice had a certain hope to it, like he was saying it as much for himself as for them.

“Well,” Jane said, tearing his eyes away. “That’s a fucking dead end. Time to keep searching boys.” He cocked his head in the other direction, hoping to escape this time bomb of a situation.

Engie and Pyro were just exchanging a look when Tavish sputtered, “wait!”

Jane blinked in surprise, trying to understand what Tavish was telling him through eyebrow motions alone. He was probably the best at reading the man, but this was beyond even his skills. Why Tavish would want to keep the two teams near each other when they were about to go for the throat, Jane had no idea.

In exasperation, Tavish said, “look, your Demo might be with our team.”

“And why do you think that, eyepatch?” Engie said, his voice laced with suspicion.

Tavish glared, but didn’t rise to the insult. “Because, if he didn’t get crushed tae death under our base, then someone must have let him out. And since you BLUs seem pretty clueless on that part, it must o’ been someone on our team. Ergo, if he’s alive, he’s goin’ tae be with RED.”

 _Which is who **they’re** looking for_ , Jane finished the thought in his head.

He stared at Tavish, the wheels turning as he came to the same conclusion.

“Alright hippies, I’ve changed my mind. You’re coming with us.”

“What?” Scout demanded at the same time Engie said, “Soldier what the hell are you pulling?”

“Did I ask for feedback?” Jane yelled right back. “Yeah, didn’t think so you bunch of princesses. Now listen here: we need to find those fucking REDs, and they’re a helluva lot less likely to shoot at us when we’ve got a couple of their own as prisoners.”

“You mean as meat shields,” Scout muttered darkly.

“Whatever fills your bathtub, son,” Jane said. “As for you, you three are about as defenseless as newborn ducklings, and you’re not getting any better if your armory is anything to go by.” He jerked his thumb over his shoulder at what used to be the RED respawn, now with a large satellite dish in the middle of it. “It’s in your best interests to stay in our protection, incase whoever did blow up your base comes back around. There, isn’t that a nice, fair deal? Let’s all hold hands and sing kumbaya and shit.”

“I don’t suppose we get any say in this?” Scout glared.

“Nope. You catch on fast, city boy.”

“Soldier…” Engie began, but was cut off by Pyro.

“Hudda hada. Buh, hah hudda huh huh ha? Hudda huh ha?”

“No Pyro,” Jane growled. “You can’t.”

“Hhhhhhhaaaaaaa…” 

“Well this is just fucking great,” Scout said, and Jane found just the edges of sympathy for him.

But hell, if it meant keeping Tavish out of trouble, he didn’t care how many REDs he inconvenienced. He tucked his shotgun back behind his back as a show of good faith.

“Alright ladies,” he barked. “Have a sit-down. We’re not going anywhere until we have an idea where the rest of you REDs headed.”

“Soldier, can I talk to you for a second?” Engie’s voice was sharp, and Jane instantly felt annoyed at being talked back to. He swallowed it though, and let the Engineer pull him aside while Pyro watched over their prisoners.

“What is it private? We can’t stay in this shithole all morning you know.”

“Sol, I have to call into question the sanity of this idea,” Engie said, all seriousness.

“Yeah? What else is new?” Jane replied evenly.

Engie frowned, black goggles glaring at him. “Cut the bull. That kids about ready to commit a murder, and you know damn well who he’s aiming for. This is only setting us up for trouble.”

“Oh, I’m sorry Engie. Can you tell me again how you graduated from the Texas Institute of Being a Bloomer-Wetting Little Pussy? They teach a class there on how to run screaming from three unarmed REDs?”

“I’m _serious_ Soldier.”

“So am I!” Jane yelled, then lowered his voice when the others turned their heads toward them. “In case you haven’t noticed we’re _already_ in trouble. There are no good decisions private, only risks we can take that might get us out of our situation. I’m going to find Demo, with or without you, and these three are the closest we have to a lead.”

Jane hoped he sounded convincing. The last thing he needed was for his teammates to think he had ulterior motives concerning keeping the REDs around.

Engie gritted his teeth.

“Fine,” he said, and Jane let out a breath he hadn’t known he’d been holding. “They ain’t much of a lead though. I mean, this map is _huge_. How the hell are we supposed to find a couple of REDs in all this damn space?”

“…Hi hudda he budda hahaha,” Pyro said, just out of earshot of the REDs.

“What was that Py?” Engie said, more out of shock than misunderstanding.

“Hi hud hi huh huh hudda hurrr hua.” Pyro shuffled closer to Engie and Soldier’s conversation, still keeping their shotgun trained. The Scout didn’t react to the loss of his guard, just kicking dirt while he sat on a bit of rubble. Mary and Tavish were talking quietly to each other, and didn’t look up. 

“We can go where?” Engie demanded in a hushed voice.

Pyro shifted uncomfortably. “Huh, huddahudaa huh haha , hudda hudda huh. Huu…hudda hudda.” 

“What?” Engie’s voice rose, and the REDs turned to look at them. “You know where the cameras go and only _now_ are you telling us?”

“Hudda hu!” Pyro raised their hands defensively. “Hi hudda hudaa hahaha hudda, hand huh hudda huuah.”

“God dammit Pyro…” Engie pinched the bridge of his nose. “Do you know how useful that could have been if you’d told us right after we’d gotten the announcement?”

Jane didn’t feel nearly as annoyed. Pyro wasn’t the most put-together person at the best of times, and Jane himself knew what it was like to have a shoddy memory that only seemed to work when it was incredibly inconvenient.

“Calm down Engie,” Jane replied gruffly. “If Pyro really does know what he’s talking about, then this might be our ticket out of here.” There was no use dwelling on what they might have done when they still had an arena to escape. He turned to Pyro. “Can you take us there?”

Pyro nodded their head.

Jane puffed up his chest, and stepped towards the staring REDs.

“Okay privates, pack it up. We’re going on a road trip.”


	9. And Here Comes the Dynamite

> _**Several Hours Earlier** _

“Come on, come on…”

Demo struggled against the handcuffs, the piece of wire he’d slipped between the chains doing fuck all. A bead of sweat rolled down his neck as another chunk of the tile ceiling came loose and landed a few feet away. His wrists burned as he twisted, just as helpless as he’d been for the past.

The sound of metal groaning made him whip his head to the left. One of the infirmary’s columns was bending under sudden weight, the explosions rocketing the building and causing it to fold in itself. There was precious little time before-

The beam gave out, collapsing and sending rubble from above to snap metal curtain rods. Demo saw a similar column towering just over him. It was already starting to buckle.

“Doktor!” The voice startled Demo, shaking him out of his visions of going the same way as the hospital beds. “Medic!”

The RED Heavy. Demo could just make out the giant through the dust filling the air, his form bobbing over the piles of debris as he called out for his Medic.

Demo opened his mouth to call out, but realized he didn’t know how to say. _Hello, I’m here_ or _hey maybe help me instead_ didn’t seem like it’d earn him any favors. Instead he yelled through the thickening dust, “he’s nae here! He left hours ago!”

He saw Heavy’s shape pause in the fog. Then the RED followed the sound of his voice, appearing over him in the most menacing possible way. Demo looked down at himself—bare feet surrounded by scraps from his several escape attempts—and thought Heavy would somehow know what he’d done.

But the RED just narrowed his eyes and said, “where did Medic go?”

“I dunno,” Demo said honestly. That didn’t keep his voice from cracking out of fear. “It’s nae like he was tellin’ _me_ anythin’.”

Heavy stared down at him, and the sweat on Demo’s brow increased. He wondered what was going on in the RED’s head, but any guesses were pointless when the metal beam gave an ominous creak.

“So er, mind helpin’ a lad out?” He shook his cuffs for emphasis.

For a second, he thought Heavy would ignore him. Say Demo wasn’t his problem and carry on his search. But after a brief moment of consideration, Heavy leaned forward, grasped the pipe Demo was chained to, and snapped it clean off.

“Er. That’s one way tae to it.”

Any more thanks was cut short as the infirmary’s remaining column gave a sinister groan. Heavy’s head turned to it, acknowledging their impending doom before charging off towards the exit. And, well, what else was there to do? Demo struggled to his feet and ran off after him.

Demo heard the infirmary collapse behind them. His body was stiff from hours of sitting, but the adrenaline overrode his screaming muscles. The shuddering building seemed to be _chasing_ him, forcing him to cut his feet over every slab of broken concrete.

It wasn’t until Heavy’s shoulder slammed into a set of double doors that he saw it. The outdoors. Safety.

He stumbled forward into the blackness of night, heaving fresh canyon air into his dust filled lungs. He was still bent over his knees when he heard a deafening roar, one that was almost as loud as the explosion that had started this whole thing. Looking up, he saw the giant satellite dish give way, crushing the last of RED’s still remaining buildings.

“Bloody hell.”

Heavy didn’t respond. Demo looked over at him, and saw a look of complete blankness on the man’s face. He was in shock; Demo didn’t blame him. His whole world had just come crashing down, and despite being held prisoner by RED for almost the whole night, Demo felt a twinge of guilt.

They looked to be the only survivors on this side of the building, and Heavy must feel awful for leaving Medic behind. And the rest of the REDs. And…

_Major_.

The thought hit Demo like a half-ton of falling base. He hadn’t even _thought_ about Major, not until now…how could he have been so stupid? So forgetful?

Major had been held prisoner too. What if no one had come and got him? What if he had been crushed under all that weight, not knowing what the fuck was happening and completely helpless?

Demo’s heart was pounding even faster than it had during the run for his life. His breathing turned to gasps, further aggravating his dust-educed coughing. It was a relief, really. Almost choking to death distracted him from the guilt in his chest that had now tripled.

When he managed to push himself to a standing position once again, he saw Heavy was gone. A quick look was all it took to find him: pushing back into the base, climbing over ruble like it was playground instead of a death pit.

“Where the hell are you goin’?” Demo managed to cough out.

Heavy looked back over his shoulder. “Find teammates. Find who did this. Whichever comes first.” And then he was back to moving, slowly finding his way over the piles of broken building.

There was no one around. Demo could make a break for it. He could get pretty far, maybe back to base. But Major was here somewhere, and there was no matter how good the idea of making it backed to BLU sounded, there was no way he could bring himself to take a step away from here

He picked himself up and followed the Heavy.

* * *

“Where were you lot keepin’ Soldier?” he asked, hoping to get more than stony silence this time.

Heavy overturned a piece of concrete that Demo could only dream of lifting. Under it was nothing, and Heavy didn’t even bother to look disappointed before moving on. “In room. Lowest floor. Underground.”

Demo’s heart sunk. He tried to move aside a metal sheet that had blow in on the remains of the building, and barely managed to push it aside. In all honesty, he wasn’t much use with his hands still in the cuffs. He’d asked Heavy a couple of times to take them off, but the RED had ignored him in favor of intensifying his search. Actually, considering how Heavy had gotten him out of his restraints in the first place, maybe he didn’t want the giant trying to remove things from his very breakable wrists.

They scraped by in silence, so when Heavy suddenly asked, “does BLU care?” it shocked him into answering.

“O’ course I care!” he said. “I dinnae come over all this way just he could die on my watch.”

Heavy grunted. Demo hadn’t exactly been forthcoming through the interrogation about his relationship to the RED Soldier, but since Heavy didn’t seem surprised by that answer, Major must have told RED that they were friends.

“Soldier cares too,” Heavy continued, still not looking at Demo. “Cried when we were going to torture BLU.”

“ _What_?” Demo sputtered, nearly dropping a rebar on his feet. “You were goin’ tae torture me?”

“Spy was,” Heavy shrugged. “But was bluff. Heavy not allow it.”

“Er…then thanks. I guess.” Because what else do you say when someone does you the courtesy of not torturing you?

“Torture is ugly,” Heavy continued on, though his eyes were so focused on his work you might have thought he was talking to himself. “Work of police. Of state. Honest men kill face to face, no in-between dead and not dead.”

“Yeah…I suppose.” Demo didn’t know why Heavy was telling him all this. Maybe he was still in shock, or this was the only way he knew how to talk to someone who is still-sort-of-your-prisoner.

They had moved in a straight line from their escape route and found no one. Somehow, they were back where they’d started, only noticeable since Demo spotted the mangled bits of wall his back had been up against. He looked at the piping he’d been handcuffed to and winced.

It didn’t take long, and once they’d found no survivors, they moved on past. The bases weren’t exactly mirrors of each other, but Demo recognized this room to be the lab. Officially, the _Engineer’s_ lab, but Demo had always gotten along well enough with his Engie that they shared it. He wondered if Tavish did the same, but now seemed like an inappropriate time to ask.

They began to peel off the layers of rubble. Only then did they see the first signs of blood.

Heavy pulled out Engie first. Demo had seen a lot of mangled bodies over the years (hell, even this particular Engineer’s mangled body) but something about knowing it wouldn’t be coming back in a few hours made it a little repulsive. Heavy carried the body away from the rubble, and Demo trailed after him.

There was a clear spot, past some arches, and Heavy laid down the Engineer’s body. It took a second, but it suddenly hit Demo that the bright ring of glass beneath them was actually the final control point. It was dark—maroon and derelict—just like the rest of the match equipment.

It was hard, the sickness building in Demo’s stomach getting worse and worse with every second. It didn’t get any better Heavy discovered Medic’s body. At first, lifting aside the remains of a dispenser that had punctured Medic’s lungs, Demo actually thought it might provoke a reaction. In fact, it had the opposite, a _negative_ reaction even. Heavy just stared down, unmoving, the corpse the only thing that could hold his attention.

When he realized Heavy might as just as well gone catatonic, Demo managed to eke out, “I’m sorry.” Because he was. He was deeply and utterly sorry and the world felt like it was about to come apart at any moment. “He was a good Medic. Right bastard and a pain, but a good Medic.”

“Yes,” Heavy replied.

And, thank god, Heavy began to move. Demo knew he couldn’t dig out a whole floor by himself, and Heavy was the only person who might be able to help. He moved out of the way so Heavy could pass, the RED carrying his dead teammate like being gentle made a difference anymore.

As he watched Heavy lay the bodies side by side, Demo tried not to think about Major. About how he and Tavish might be lined up here by morning’s light. Nope, wouldn’t be good to think about that at all.

He was trying to come up with another apology when the sound of sliding rock disturbed them.

Heavy was up in an instant, hands balled into fists. Despite knowing what those babies could do, Demo still didn’t feel secure without a single weapon on them. But his worries melted soon; it was only the RED Pyro, arm slung over the Spy while their teammate helped them limp along.

“Hudda!” Pyro broke away from Spy, hobbling over to where Heavy stood. “Hudda ha! Haha budda huha ha.” 

“Is good you are alive too,” Heavy said, placing a hand on Pyro’s shoulder. “But things are not all good.”

Pyro and Spy followed his gaze, noticing the casualties. Pyro gave a cry of defeat, and Spy just pinched the bridge of his nose and whispered, “ _merde_ …”

“We find no one else,” Heavy concluded. “Cover whole north side.”

“Hudda huh,” Pyro said. “Huddd hrra mmrr a.” 

Spy just looked at the bodies.

“You cannae just give up!” Demo insisted, and the REDs turned to him with a glare. “I mean…there’s more floors than just the top one! What about your Soldier, you’re nae even goin’ tae look for him.”

Heavy glared. “Would take many days with equipment. We have hands. And Soldier is not only one we are missing. We have not-traitor team, Sniper, Demoman-”

“Scout,” Spy mumbled.

“Scout,” Heavy agreed. “Do not know who is dead, who is alive. May be we look for bodies that are not here.”

Demo felt the frustration bubble up inside him. It was vocalized, not by him, but by Pyro, when they made an irritated gurgle.

“Hurrma!” they grunted. “Hubba huda hwo. Mug, hudda hu? Burr hudda huer ho!”

Heavy blinked at Pyro. “Respawn does not work, Pyro. No part. Plus, look,” he said, indicating the crushed remains of the once-building.

Pyro kicked their foot against the ground, seemingly on the verge of something. “Hurr mmrr. Hu…” They looked at the control point below them. “Hu mmr mrr hudda! Duh hura!” 

Heavy’s eyes widened in realization. “Yes…it will. And if cameras work then maybe…”

“Err…” Demo said. “Anyone want tae fill me in?”

Heavy ignored him, and suddenly he was off, going down what used to be a hallways with Pyro not far behind. It took a moment for Spy to snap out of his daze, but then he was following his fellow REDs. Demo sighed, hating his status as incompetent tagalong.

When he caught up, Pyro was trying unsuccessfully to move a wooden wall that had fallen in their path. Heavy came up beside them, and together the two pushed the hunk of wood away. It revealed what could only be the RED war room, which itself looked like it’d been through a war. The central table was left sturdy, bits of debris cluttering around it. The computers that lined the room were smashed, even though Demo doubted they’d done more than blink and make beeps anyways.

And there, still active at the back of the room, was the scoreboard.

Demo blinked, realizing this is what the REDs had been looking for. Pyro was already rushing to the back, knocking aside the fallen clutter in order to reveal it. The rest followed them inside, suddenly realizing that this would be the moment of truth. Pyro pushed themselves away to reveal…

Two points for BLU.

The whole room breathed a sigh of relief. “Is only two,” Heavy said, and Demo could hear the attempt at control in his voice. “Medic and Engineer. No one else.”

“They’re fine,” Demo said with even less control. “All the rest are fine. Whoever else must have gotten out.” Demo glanced at the zero score for RED, and gave another sigh of relief. He hadn’t really been worried someone on BLU was dead, but it was nice to have the assurance.

“Hud budda mmmph?” Pyro asked. 

They all looked around at each other, all except Spy, whose eyes were still locked on the board.

“Heavy does not know,” Heavy said finally. “But Heavy _does_ know that they are not here. They go somewhere else. And one place is safe.” When Pyro and Demo just gave him blank looks, he clarified. “We go to second base.”

“Second base?” Demo asked, before suddenly remembering RED’s other control point. “You mean the dam?”

“Da,” Heavy nodded. “Dam. When we lose one base, we go to another. They know this. We go there, we find others.”

Demo saw his line of reasoning, but didn’t share his conviction. If Major had gotten out, the first thing he would do is come looking for Demo. As the BLU looked around the room: the blank faced Pyro, the still out of it Spy, the Heavy who had only saved his life on a whim…he realized he _really_ didn’t want to go with these people.

But something told him he didn’t have a choice.


	10. There is Nowhere I Can Turn / There is No Way To Go On

The walk to the damn hurt almost as bad as picking through the base’s rubble, and Demo thought longingly for his shoes still trapped under tons of concrete. He had a cut across his face he didn’t remember getting, and it stung as sweat leaked into the open wound. The morning sun chased away at least some of the chill, but it was a small comfort compared to all the aches that still wracked his body.

At least his hands were free now. Eventually Spy had snapped out of his daze, and had directed his apparently never-ending disdain for BLU at the Demoman. Heavy had told Spy to take off the handcuffs, but the spook had refused, resulting in the tensest battle of wills Demo had ever seen.

“For all we know, he had something to do with this,” Spy had hissed. “Think of who wants us dead the most, and whose team comes up at the top of that list.”

“BLU could have run if wanted,” Heavy said in a voice that was both calm and terrifying. “Not foe for moment. Could be asset.”

It was a badminton game of ugly glances and gritted teeth, but eventually Heavy had won out. Spy had retrieved the keys from his pocket, and had let Demo go with a warning: “don’t make me regret this.”

Demo responded to the Spy the way he always had so far: stony silence.

“He hates BLU. Very much.” Demo blinked, realizing the statement had come from Heavy, who was walking a bit to the left of him.

“Yeah, I noticed,” Demo grunted. He’d always found the Spy to be ruthless and a bit more cruel than the rest of the REDs, but he didn’t know he’d sink to torture. The BLU Spy wouldn’t. He was a clean and efficient killer: nothing about him so messy.

“Very much wanted to attack BLU base,” Heavy continued, and Demo didn’t intend to stop him. “Heavy was too. But for Spy…seem personal.”

“Really?” Demo blinked. He looked behind him at Pyro and Spy, just out of earshot. “I cannae imagine what that’d be about.”

Heavy kept going. “He and Engineer argue. Engineer call Spy coward in front of team. Argue more later, when you are prisoner.”

Demo vaguely remembered that. Medic would be busy, standing over Demo and being terrifying, when arguments would come from outside the infirmary. Medic would leave in a huff, complaining about his teammates behaving like children. It was scary to think how close either Medic or Spy had come to turning him into a sliced ham, even if their intention were different.

“I’m sorry about your Engineer,” Demo said. “He seemed like a nice guy.”

“He was.” Heavy stared ahead. “Heavy respect he did not want to fight. But Spy…”

That was strange. There was something that unsettled Heavy about Spy, and it got Demo thinking. And then he thought about what would happen if the two came to a head again. And that got him thinking even harder—so much harder that by the time they had RED Control Point 2, he had formed a pretty solid plan.

The miniature excuse for a base swung open at Heavy’s touch. It wasn’t large: just enough rooms to give the illusion of being livable. Conversely, it didn’t take long to search.

“Mrrhurrr…” Pyro groaned in defeat. 

“Must be,” Heavy said, determination filling his voice. Demo knew that sound. This was a man who _needed_ to find his team, if only to distract him from how fucked they truly were.

“Give it up you idiot,” Spy snarled. “They’re not here. Either they are still trapped, or they didn’t think to come _here_ of all places.”

Heavy glared daggers into Spy. “We keep looking.”

Spy made a noise of disgust. He made a poor show of pretending to look, such as gently lifting stacks of folders and checking underneath. Pyro did as they were asked, but Demo could tell even their faith was waning. There were crackers in one of the cupboards, probably a holdover from the last time the teams had fought here, but the survivors were long past caring about expiration dates.

Demo split them with Pyro; Spy turned his nose at them, and Heavy seemed to know that a few crackers wouldn’t satisfy him.

The sun rose higher, beating down harshly on anyone who left the shadow of the dam. Exhaustion hit Demo hard. After a sleepless night and a walk through the canyon, there wasn’t much a few crackers could do to beat if off. He fell into one of the beds almost by accident, unconscious before his head hit the mattress.

Demo awoke to Spy standing over him.

“Ach! Jesus!” Demo struggled to a sitting position, crawling backwards on the bed to get as far away from Spy as possible.

“You should not be slipping away like that,” Spy said more calmly than his eyes betrayed.

“Slip away?” Demo sputtered. “I dinnae even leave the base! All I did was lie down for a few minutes.”

“You are lucky Heavy has taken pity on you,” Spy said, ignoring his defense. “If I were you, I wouldn’t do anything that would make others suspicious, lest we start to believe you had something to do with the death of our teammates.”

Spy’s hands were tucked behind him, but Demo could practically feel his need to hover over his breast pocket. The rest of the survivor’s were unarmed, but Demo had no doubt the Spy still had his various weapons on him from before the base’s destruction. His hands curled into the mattress.

“Mind yourself,” Spy finished, voice a poison sinking into veins. “Lest you reveal something even Heavy’s grace will not shield you from.”

Demo heard the threat. He heard it, and he hardened his resolve. “Go choke you cocksuckin’ snake.”

Spy’s lip curled in disgust before he turned and left. It took a minute for Demo to breath again, and longer for him to unclamp his hands from the bed.

* * *

Heavy came back from checking the perimeter of the base. He looked sweaty and exhausted, and Demo could tell before asking he hadn’t had any luck. If Demo was feeling anxious not knowing where Major had gone, Heavy had that multiplied by four.

“Hurr?” Pyro asked as he walked in the door. 

“Nyet,” Heavy said curtly, and that was that. He took a drink of water from the sink, glaring at Spy from the corner of his eye.

The Spy was busy smoking in spite of the Heavy’s irritation. Or maybe because of it.

Heavy drained three cups before slamming his glass down on the table. “Heavy is going out again.” He said it in a way that made it very clear the others should come with.

Pyro futzed with their hands. “Murr? Hudda hur hah, hurrmmm…”

Heavy ignored them and moved towards the door.

“Hud!” Pyro jumped in front of him, trying to stop the RED’s progress. “Hum...mrr…” They were obviously concerned for their teammate, and Demo didn’t blame them. Every minute they didn’t find the other REDs was another minute Heavy seemed closer to snapping. Suddenly, Pyro seemed to realize something. “…Mrrr haha huh!”

“The top of the dam?” Spy scoffed. “Why would they be up there? And if they were, we would be able to see them from here.”

Heavy paused, face impassive yet obviously thinking. “No…Pyro is right. Is smaller base at top of dam, on other side. Maybe others go there.”

Spy snorted. “They why have they not come down? They would be looking for us as well.”

“We go look,” Heavy said. “Find out.”

“Be my guest,” Spy said with a roll of his eyes, motioning the stairwell door.

“All of us,” Heavy said firmly.

Spy glared at his teammate, but in the end relented. Demo couldn’t understand why Spy was dragging his feet so hard when it came to finding the lost REDs. Sure everyone but Heavy could see it was pointless, but the least he could do was put on a show of it. Instead he seemed to grow more cantankerous even as Heavy grew determined.

Demo knew it had more to do with the fact it was Heavy’s idea than the goal itself. He could feel the divide growing between the two. A divide he knew he had caused.

They made their way up the stairs, and Spy began to complain. Heavy ignored him, so Demo did too. But the constant snide remarks prickled the back of the Demoman’s neck, especially when they became more personal.

“…And yet he’s still here,” Spy finished saying as they made their way into daylight. “Like a beacon of our downfall. The reason BLU was able to destroy our base in the first place, and probably attracting them here too.”

Demo’s hackles rose, whipping around to face the Spy. “And what in the bloody hell is that supposed tae mean?”

The wind was stronger here, positioned in the middle of the dam. It ruffled the edges of Spy’s suit, but otherwise he remained impassive to their location.

“It means that the timing is far too coincidental,” Spy said his voice perfectly clipped. “Think about it: how likely is it that our base is destroyed merely a few hours after we take a BLU captive? Obviously this was some form of retaliation.”

“Yeah, like BLU has the means tae blow up a whole base,” Demo snarled sarcastically. “While we’re at it, we’re probably the ones who shut down respawn too.” Demo rolled his eye.

Spy waved a hand away. “Fine, it was not BLU. But it is no secret you’re in cahoots with a third party, this _Jane_.”

Demo ground his teeth. He wanted to explain himself, but the truth was even less believable than whatever the REDs had cooked up. Pyro and Heavy were staring at him, and he could feel the danger in the air as strongly as the breeze off the lake.

“I’m nae in cahoots with anyone,” he said. “I practically died in that buildin’ and you think I caused it?”

Spy shrugged. “Then the attack was a calculated attempt to keep you quiet. Either way, we have a Demoman with us, and our base _demolished_. Quite the series of events, no?”

“Whatever,” Demo said, watching his avenues of escape closing. Spy no longer sounded casually accusatory. Instead, there was a visceral anger just beneath the surface; a hatred Demo didn’t understand and wouldn’t be able to temper. “Let’s just go check the other base.”

“Why suddenly so interested in finding the other REDs, hmm?” Spy asked as Demo turned away. “You certainly weren’t in a hurry before. In fact, it seems you are stalling for time.”

Demo whipped around, prickling at the insult especially when Spy had been dragging his feet even worse than Demo. Before he could say anything, Heavy interrupted, “Spy. Is enough.”

“Enough?” Spy laughed, and there was an edge of hysteria to it. “Look at him! He’s just waiting for BLU or his allies or _whoever_ , just so he stamp out the last of us.”

“Spy,” Heavy repeated, but Spy didn’t stop.

“ _You_ let him go and he’s going to get us killed. He did it before and he’ll do it again.”

The world was frozen. Demo could see it, Spy’s slight motion, the hand he favored passing just over his coat. Demo had no means to defend himself, no weapons to speak of, barely any allies. Just a couple of second where Spy might decide he wasn’t worth the trouble.

And Demo wasn’t about to die here. Just because he didn’t have a gun, didn’t mean he was helpless.

“You’ve done a lot o’ pushin’ tae try and pin this on me,” Demo said darkly. “But I’m not your bloody scapegoat. ‘Specially when _you_ had a lot more reason tae blow up the base than I did.”

The wind screamed through the silhouettes, cracking what would undoubtedly be terribly silence otherwise.

“ _What_ did you just say?” Spy hissed.

Demo straightened his shoulders. “You heard me. It’s hard tae believe all these accusations when the real culprit is the one spewin’ ‘em.”

“What does BLU imply?” Heavy said, standing halfway between Spy and Demo. He was who Demo would need to convince if he wanted to survive this encounter.

“Think about it,” he said evenly. “Spy hates the Engineer. The only one stoppin’ him from leadin’ the REDs over and smashin’ BLU intae the ground. Isnae it a little convenient that only a little bit later he ends up dead.”

“How _dare_ you.” Spy’s voice was rising, but Demo wasn’t done yet.

“And if he could get rid of the Engineer _and_ blame BLU for it, well wouldnae that just be somethin’?” Demo blinked, trying to keep his voice casually even. He had to sell this. Everything depended on it.

" _Enfoiré_ ,” Spy swore. He was shaking now. With rage or fear Demo couldn’t guess. “You think I would kill my own team? Maybe that is what goes on around on the BLU side of the battlefield but I am _no_ traitor.”

“Unconvincin’ words, comin’ from a Spy,” Demo said.

“Spy,” Heavy said, and to Demo’s relief, there were the beginnings of suspicion forming. “Calm down. Anger does not help case.”

“ _Case_!?” Spy’s voice was a shriek. And thank god it was. If Spy had reacted to Demo’s accusation with cold indifference, he didn’t know what he’d do. “What case? It’s baseless accusation.”

Heavy raised an eyebrow at Demo. “Is true. Demoman have any proof?”

Pyro, still behind Demo from where they’d been leading the group, muttered something. Demo didn’t hear, too busy concentrating on Spy, looking for signs of weakness. The RED almost looked confident, certain that Demo wouldn’t have anything concrete.

So when Demo said, “the explosion at your base was caused by a flame in the buildin’s gas pipes,” his face fell.

“Mmmr?” Pyro demanded. 

Demo shrugged. “It was easy tae figure once we’d been tae the lab. The tank was probably stored right below there, givin’ whoever was in the room at the time the worse o’ the blast. If someone who dinnae know what they were doin’—say a Spy without an demolition expertise—they might try tae bomb that room and end up brinin’ the whole base down.”

Spy was sputtering now, his indignation and spite wrestling for control.

“You say Spy try to kill Engineer, and almost kill all. On _accident_?” Heavy’s eyes flashed between Demo and Spy.

Nodding, Demo said, “aye. He probably dinnae even know Medic was in the room at the time.”

There. That was the magic phrase. It was like sorcery before his eye, watching Heavy go from one side of the battle to the other.

Spy saw the change in Heavy’s eyes too. “Don’t tell you actually believe all this nonsense?” he gaped. “This is just…him spewing whatever he think will exonerate himself.”

“Spy still has not said anything in defense,” Heavy said, neither accusatory nor comforting. “Where was at time of explosion?”

“Th-that is ridiculous! I shouldn’t have to answer that!”

Heavy’s eyes narrowed. “Bad answer.”

“Aye. Tell me why I _shouldnae_ think you’re the traitor behind all o’ this?” Demo demanded, pushing exactly the right button.

“Because _you_ are you BLU _fils de pute!_ ”

Spy moved so fast, Demo thought he might die before he’d get a chance to blink. But the rouge just held his gun a shaking hand, pointing it directly at the Demoman’s chest.

“Hudda!” Pyro stepped forward, and Demo didn’t need to understand their words to hear the distress in their voice. “Murr! Hudda mur a, hudda hur!”

“Oh _I’m_ acting crazy?” Spy demanded, something wild in his eyes. “ _He’s_ the one believing a this _interloper_ over me!” Spy’s hand jerked just enough to indicate Heavy.

“Mrr?” Pyro begged. “Gudda hur hua, hudda ha!” 

“Shut up!” Spy said, and suddenly, to Demo’s shock, his arm swung off the BLU and pointed directly at Pyro. “What? Are you going to start accusing me too? Throw your lot in with him instead of me??”

“SPY,” Heavy roared. “Is enough. Give gun.” The switch from pointing a gun at Demo to pointing a gun at a teammate was the last straw.

“Stay away from me! After everything I’ve done for this team stay away from me you fucking traitors!”

There was one tense moment where the world froze. Spy stood, back to the railing, gun shaking in his usually steady hands. Then Heavy moved, and too many things happened at once.

The gun went off. And Demo could see in the way Spy’s eyes flashed open that he hadn’t really meant to pull the trigger. But it still fired, and out of the corner of his eye Demo saw Pyro jerk, twisting even as the gunshot was ringing across the dam.

And Heavy was still moving, still reaching for Spy’s gun. A reflex, a moment of recoil as Spy tried to step back-

And stumbled against the railing.

There was a split second where Heavy realized what was about to happen, changing his trajectory to try and grab Spy’s shirt instead. He wasn’t fast enough. One moment Spy was there, and the next he was gone, disappearing over the edge of the dam.

All the oxygen disappeared from Demo’s lungs. Beside him he heard something: an unearthly wail, a sound he never thought a human being could make. It was scream of completely and utter loss, only slightly muffled through the filters of the suit.

Pyro pushed past, stumbling to look over the railing even as they clutched their shoulder. Red blood welled up beneath black fingers, but Pyro didn’t even seem to notice as they gave another agonized wail.

They sunk to their knees. Heavy came forward—whether to look over the edge or to help the Pyro it wasn’t clear—because the scene only last a moment. Suddenly Pyro was back up, stumbling to walk as they made their way toward the stairs. Demo hesitated, not knowing if he should follow, but a sideways glance at Heavy revealed that the giant was following his teammate.

Demo was the last to make it down the stairs. He missed what must have been the desperate struggle to fish Spy out of the river; the rouge was already down to the capture point where he must have drifted. Heavy was standing nearby, watching Pyro lean over the dead RED. Demo felt a brief wave of revulsion when he blinked and saw the Pyro’s face turned 180°, but it ceased when he realized it was the mask pushed backwards and staring upside down at him.

Heavy looked at the scene with empty eyes. The masked looked back with even emptier eyes, Pyro trying and failing to breath life back into the Spy. It wasn’t going to work. Even with Pyro’s body blocking most of his view, Demo could see a jacket-covered arm bent at too wrong of an angle.

Heavy turned to him. Demo blinked, the ground underneath him like jello.

“Go,” Heavy said, his voice empty of all emotion.

Demo opened his mouth. Then he closed it. There was nothing he could do to salvage this, and the steel in Heavy’s eyes meant he wasn’t changing anyone’s mind. He turned and left the base, the sound of Pyro’s sobs following him all the way to the tunnels.


	11. A Discouraging Word

> _**Several Hours Earlier** _

Pyro led them through the mountains of Hydro, the reflective red of the canyon slowly burning from morning to noon. Jane had their three “prisoners” march in formation, each of the BLUs creating a triangle around the outside incase any of the REDs tried to make a break for it.

Not that Jane thought they would. Mary and Tavish trusted that he would keep them safe, and Scout looked more likely to fight than run (as out of character as that might seem.) He kept eyeing the BLUs weapons like he was going to make a grab for them, and despite Jane’s conviction that this was the right decision, he couldn’t help but give weight to Engie’s warning that the kid was trouble.

“We’re going to need some food soon,” Engie muttered to Soldier. “Or at least some water if we want to keep from going looney.”

It was true. None of them had eaten since dinner last night, and even then not much. The desert wasn’t doing them many favors, and sweat was forming under Jane’s collar.

“Hull hudda ha hooo,” Pyro called over their shoulder. “Huha hooha ha.” 

But when they arrived at the “air vent” Pyro had mentioned, it was actually another large tunnel bored into the mountainside, much like they’d been seeing all over the map. Pyro stopped in shock—clearly a surprise to them as well.

They scratched their rubber-covered head and knelt down to examine the excavation. “Huh hudda hug…budda hub.” 

“Any chance you want tae tell us your Pyro is sayin’?” Tavish asked, and Jane realized he’d just assumed that the REDs had been able to understand. Maybe Pyro-speak was different for each one.

“Pyro was able meet the Administrator once, and this is the way he got in,” Jane explained as if Tavish meant no more to him than the tumbleweeds around them. “We were planning on heading down to her camera room, but it looks like someone beat us to it.”

“Do you think that’s why someone made swiss cheese of this map?” Tavish wondered. “Because they were looking for the cameras?”

Jane shrugged truthfully.

Pyro made a small noise of distress.

“What’s wrong, Py?” Engie asked them.

“Hubba bub: hudda _hug_ haha, hudda _hubba_ hudd huah.” 

Jane rolled his eyes, and started the march deeper into the mountain.

* * *

Thankfully, it was cooler inside. Tavish fought off the thirst building inside him, and knew he wouldn’t get any use out of complaining when he was still technically a prisoner.

He wondered what would have happened if Jane hadn’t come to find them. Maybe they could have looked for food in the remains of the base. Or maybe whoever had blown it up in the first place really WOULD have come back and finished them off. Whatever the possibilities, he was glad Jane was here; there was no one he trusted more, even if he didn’t really think his BLU buddies would hesitate to kill him if he gave them a reason.

He wished he could talk to Jane. But that would blow their whole cover, and there was no opportunity for them both to slip away undetected. For now, he would just have to settle for staring longingly at the Soldier’s back.

The tunnel began to widen, and the BLU Pyro hurried on ahead, motioning frantically.

But when they reached the end of their several hour long journey, it only sunk their spirits further.

“Aw hell,” the Engineer muttered. Every screen was dark. What was worse, most of them were smashed, and broken computers rose in piles near a scattering of ripped out phones. More tunnels were there, as though this were the center chamber of massive network.

Someone hadn’t wanted them using this.

“Well this was a waste of time,” Jane growled, and Tavish couldn’t help but agree. The Administrator had either covered her tracks, or someone else had done it for her.

“Don’t say that just yet Sol,” the Engineer said, sitting down near the computers. “These may not connect to the camera systems anymore, but that doesn’t mean they’re useless. Given a couple of hours and a little bit of luck…I may be able to send a message out of here.”

Tavish heart lurched. “Really?” he said, forgetting to sound all depressed and prisoner-like. “Won’t she be able to block it?”

Engie didn’t seem to care who he was talking to now that he was examining the computers with intensity. “Maybe, maybe not. But since this is TF Industries technology we’re working with here, I think I’d have a better shot than just puttering around with what we have on base.”

Tavish thought of his mother. She wouldn’t expect him home until the weekend. If he didn’t come back, she’d be mad that he didn’t call, but think he was just out on another job.

It might be weeks before she realized something was wrong.

By that time he could be dead. He’d lost two of his friends in twenty-four hours and they were still no closer to finding escape. If he could send a message…just to tell her he loved her…

Engie interrupted his thoughts with a loud clang that sent computer parts spinning.

“Alright, I guess we’re camping here for the time being,” Jane told the rest of their band.

Scout didn’t waste much time. He dropped against the cool metal of the wall, folding his arms and staring at the back of Engie’s head. After a moment, Mary joined him, and the Pyro sat cross-legged not too far away.

Tavish hesitated. This might be his only chance.

“Well, since we’re goin’ to be here for a while, I’m goin’ tae go take a leak,” he said with unchallenged confidence.

Scout and Mary stared at him, both with looks that read clearly _what the hell are you doing?_

But it wasn’t their understanding he was looking for. Jane caught on after only a moment’s pause.

“Well tough shit, maggot,” Jane barked. “You’re not going ANYWHERE that I can’t see you.”

Tavish shrugged. “Fine, you can fuckin’ watch you creepy bastard.” And he headed off down one of the various tunnels.

He heard Jane sputter, and he knew it was partially genuine. He was glad he could still ruffle his Soldier’s feathers even when they were this deep in shit.

“I am coming after you!” Jane called as his voice followed Tavish. “But only to make sure you don’t run away, you hear me?!”

Tavish grinned, and kept walking. He heard Jane’s breath behind him, but still went further just on the off chance sound carried in this place. Only when he was _sure_ that they were out of earshot did he whip around and pull his boyfriend into a hug.

Jane hugged him back, letting his shotgun point at the floor. It was a little uncomfortable, the helmet weird as he tucked their heads together, but that was overpowered by the sheer relief of holding Jane again.

“You son of a bitch,” Jane told him. “Don’t you ever do that again, do you understand me private?”

Tavish chuckled weakly. “Alright. From now on, I will refrain from havin’ any more buildin’s fall on me.”

“Good to hear.” Jane reached up, smiling as he held the side of Tavish’s face in his hand. It was a rare smile, one that not even Tavish could pull out of him on a regular basis. Yet here they were, briefly reunited when the world was still tumbling down around them.

“Thanks for comin’ for us,” Tavish allowed once they exhausted the warm silence between them.

“As romantic as that might have been, I really did come looking for Demo,” Jane admitted. “We might have even got there sooner after you guys took him, but there were cave-ins all the way from RED to BLU base. Getting around this map is going to be a hell of a lot harder now.”

“So BLU really didn’t cause it?” Tavish asked. Not that he had seriously thought they might, but it was good to eliminate one of the options.

Jane shook his head. “Everyone, save Demo, was sound asleep when we left. Couldn’t have been them.”

“Asleep?” Tavish blinked. “Did you three sneak out?”

Jane hesitated, but then realized there was no reason to lie at this point. “Yeah. Fucking midnight rescue mission. I told Demo not to go in the first place, but here we fucking are.”

Tavish didn’t like the thought that Jane had gone on the lamb. He’d been relying on the fact that at least he still had BLU to take care of him, but apparently not even they were watching the Soldier’s back.

“Do you think…?” Tavish began. “Do you think your Engineer and Pyro would be willing to listen if you explained that we’re nae the bad guys? It might be easier when we’re not tryin’ tae convince a whole team, and I have a feelin’ me, Soldier, and Scout are goin’ tae need weapons at some point.”

“It might be easier once I get the whole picture.” Jane looked up, pushing his helmet just enough to look Tavish in the eyes. “What exactly happened when Demo came over?”

So Tavish told him. He began with waking up in the middle of the night to the news that a BLU had been caught on base, all the way to finding Engie and Medic’s bodies. As he relived the night, it struck him exactly how much had happened in such a short amount of time.

“And Soldier’s still mad at me,” he finished. “Talkin’ tae me a little now that we know Graham’s still alive, but things are still…nae great between us.”

“Well can you blame him?” Jane said. “You manipulated him.”

“To save his life!” Tavish protested. “He would have been in those bodies we found if I had let him be a bloody idiot!”

“I would have done the same for you.” Jane pointed out, and that quieted Tavish. “And then either lived or died with my decision.”

“…I know.” Tavish’s shoulders sagged. “I just…is it so wrong that I want tae hold onto the few people I have left?”

“You don’t need to,” Jane said, and it was something only he could say and still make it sound true. It was just another part in his worldly philosophy, one that never seemed to have time for soft moments. “Let me worry about it. You just keep yourself alive, and I’ll work on those two maggots.”

Tavish sighed. “…Okay.” He leaned down, and Jane allowed himself to be brought into a kiss. “I got your message by the way,” he said, sad words against rough lips.

“Hmm. Good. It’s true,” Jane replied gruffly.

“It just…made me think. About before the War, when we never talked about our future, so afraid things would fall apart. And now they actually _are_ fallin’ apart and we’re makin’ all these promises we know we cannae keep.”

Jane grunted. “Yeah well. We also had a lot fewer problems back then. Sometimes making promises is what you have to do. We promise to stay together, to look out for each other, to respect each other, even when those things contradict. But we’ve gotta do it if we want to see tomorrow.”

“…Maybe you’re right.” Tavish didn’t know if he believed all that, but saying differently wouldn’t change things. He let them hold the embrace a while longer, until he said, “but I really do have to take a piss. So if you could just stare at the wall? I get performance anxiety.”

Jane made a noise of mild disgust let him go.

* * *

Mary spent most of his time staring at the metal walls and being hungry. It felt like he’d been down in the screen room for an eternity, the broken technology black and lifeless; not even some blinking lights to catch his eye. There was no way to tell time, but he did feel weakness settling on him after his walk through the desert.

Jane wouldn’t even let him go explore the tunnels while he waited. Sure Mary knew he was pretending to not to be his friend, but the BLU could at least be a _little_ lenient.

Next to him, he heard Scout’s stomach growl.

“You doing alright son?” he asked discreetly, the BLU Pyro busy playing with their lighter.

“Fuck off…” Scout muttered. He sounded very cranky. Mary waited a little bit, making it clear he wouldn’t let the topic drop. “Uhg, fine, I’m hungry. I better not die of starvation down here. That would just be embarrassing.”

Mary knew Jane wouldn’t let them die of hunger, but that didn’t make the ache in his stomach any better.

He raised his hand.

It took a second for Jane to realize what he was doing. The other Soldier walked over and demanded, “what is it, maggot?”

Mary put his hand down now that he’d been called on. “Our Scout here needs sustenance! Look at those skinny arms, he was about ready to keel over to begin with!”

“Hey!” Scout yelled. “I didn’t tell you that so could blab to everyone.”

Jane frowned down at the both of them. “And what do you want me to do about that?”

Mary shrugged. “Well this is the Administrator’s secret base, right? Maybe she has snacks.”

Looking down at them, Jane’s face was half obscured by his helmet, but Mary could tell he was thinking hard. After all, the BLUs would need food eventually too.

“Pyro,” Jane barked, and Pyro almost dropped their lighter. “I want to you to search the perimeter looking for any rations you can find. That includes food! Water! Bullets! We’ll need it all.”

“Huh a hurr hadda?” Pyro said, folding their arms. 

“Because Engie’s busy and I have better things to do.” When Pyro continued to glare, Jane told them, “and whoever goes has first dibs on whatever he finds.”

That perked the BLU up, and Mary watched them scoop their flamethrower and walk out the door. Mary hoped whatever food they found they wouldn’t decide to torch it a little first.

Mary was about to say as much when one of the TVs made a crackling noise.

Everyone froze, whipping around to look up at the display in the center of the room. The un-broken screen was filled with static, buzzing like Mary’s TV at home whenever a raccoon chewed on one of the antennas.

“Engie…” Jane said. “Are you getting a signal out?”

Engie stood, dusting off his hands and examining the contraption in front of him. It didn’t look like any phone Mary had ever seen, and bent in odd angles like something out of Star Trek. Engie grinned proudly at it.

“Actually, I’m doing one better,” he said. “Or I guess, one worse depending on how you look at it. I’m actually _receiving_ a signal.”

“ _What_??” everyone said at once. Engie didn’t get a change to explain. The static was staring to form a picture, the outline of a human figure in the middle of the screen moving sporadically. They all clustered around, watching the fuzz clear.

A warbled voice was coming from the computer in front of Engie. “…D..t…hell…ere…is...one?”

The Engineer knelt in front of it. “This BLU Engineer reporting. Who am I talking to here?”

“…Ue…how…req…………?”

“Dammit,” Engie muttered. He began to fiddle with the computer, the audio getting more broken even as the picture became better.

“This is all secured and shit right?” Scout asked, voice hushed. “So…do you think that might be the Administrator on there?” Scout pointed at the screen.

Mary’s muscles tightened. Even though he knew the Administrator was probably hundreds of miles away by now, the thought of seeing her sent shiver’s down Mary’s spine. There was something terrifying about the women, especially when she had the power to make their lives worse at any moment.

But when the screen cleared, it wasn’t the Administrator, or even Miss Pauling. It was a skinny, rather nervous looking man in a business suit.

“He…lo…? Am I get…ing through to…now?”

“Well,” Engie said, blinking at the screen. “I’ll be darned.” He leaned down to the computer like he was talking into a microphone. “This is BLU Engineer, and you’re coming through just fine.”

“Engineer? Like as in one of her mercenaries?” The man on the screen looked agitated, running a hand through his dark hair. “Well, hell. When I thought I could get in touch with some of her people, this isn’t exactly what I had in mind.”

“And what the hell is that supposed to mean, male version of Miss Pauling?” Mary demanded, shaking his fist at the screen.

The man flinched, even with the barrier of the screen between them. “Nothing, nothing! I was just hoping to find like…agents, some of her spies. You know, people who know things.”

“Well,” Jane growled from behind Mary, “I do know one thing. And it’s that I’m going to put a BOOT UP YOUR ASS if you don’t tell us what the hell is going RIGHT NOW.”

“Calm down Soldier,” Engie said, and it was so like the way RED Engie would have said it, it made Mary’s heart ache. Addressing the mic, Engie said, “don’t mind my friend, we’re just in a stressful situation right now. And I don’t know why you were looking for us in the first place, but we’re not the Administrator’s ‘people’ anymore. Assuming that’s the ‘her’ you’re talking about.”

“What?” the man in the TV asked. “What do you mean?”

“Well, as of yesterday, she informed us over the speakers that we’re expected kill the other team without the help ‘a good ole respawn.” Engie frowned. “Since that’s breach in our contract, you can imagine what conclusions we’ve drawn.”

The suited man seemed to be in a room similar to the one the mercs were in now. He had a bunch of files in front of him, and he stopped shuffling them nervously when Engie was done speaking.

“Yesterday?” he blinked. “Well that’s…that’s just not possible.”

Mary glanced behind him to see Tavish squinting suspiciously at the screen. “Why wouldn’t that be possible?” he said, just as confused.

“Well, uh, because Helen’s right next to me.” Both rooms froze as the man scratched behind his neck. “And, uh, I’m no coroner, but she’s been dead for at least a week.”


	12. Oh How the Turntables

The silence hung heavy, clinging to the mercenaries the way the heat had not too long ago.

“What do you mean ‘dead’?” Jane said, feeling the stupidity in his own question. Because what else could the man in the suit mean?

“Um…dead dead,” the man said. “As in shot. Killed. You know, dead.”

“We’re familiar,” Engie said gruffly, and looked around at all of them. The three REDs were clustered close to the screen, Jane and Engie still keeping their distance. No matter which way you spun it, this had just gotten complicated.

“But…” Tavish began. “How? She was just talkin’ to us the other mornin’!”

“Maybe she left you guys some messages?” the man shrugged. “Like pre-recorded stuff? I don’t know, you’re asking the wrong guy.”

“They couldn’t be messages,” Engie said. “Our Scout tried some dumb shit, and immediately she went on the speakers and chewed us out. She had to have been watching us.”

Jane remembered the feeling he had when he heard her that second time, the doubts that began to form since then. Things only seemed to be getting stranger, and there were secrets here that could mean the difference of life and death.

“Doesn’t matter,” Jane said, and he knew by the way the others looked at him he was sounding crazy again. But he didn’t care. They had to get what was going on. “If TV guy is telling the truth, then the Administrator hasn’t been the one calling the shots. Someone’s been using her as a front, and we need some goddamned answers.” Jane got up close to the screen. “First and foremost, who the HELL are you, city slicker?”

The man on the screen leaned backwards, knocking over a clipboard in the process. “I’m Bidwell! I said that at the beginning!” He quickly picked the clipboard off the floor. “Oh, um maybe you guys still couldn’t hear me then. But uh, I work for Mann Co. and the robot invasion has been getting bad, so Mr. Hale had me come to Helen to ask for help. But…well…when I got here, it was clear she was already aware of the severity of the situation.”

The mercs stared at Bidwell in utter shock.

“Okay,” Scout said. “Quick question. What the fuck?”

“What are you on about?” Mary demanded. “Robots? Invasion? If you weren’t inside that tiny box I’d kick your ass for crazy talk!”

“…You guys didn’t know about the robot war?” The question was answered by the mercs silence. “But I mean, it’s been going on for years! I guess she really _did_ keep you guys in the dark…”

“No shit,” Jane mumbled.

“Start from the beginning,” Engie told Bidwell. “What the hell is this about robots?”

Bidwell shuffled around his papers, as though not sure where to start. “Um, the _beginning_ beginning? Because I think that would violate quite a few company confidentiality laws…”

“Just start talking hippie!” Jane demanded. He felt something loose inside of him, like whatever this man was about to tell him was something he’d rather not hear.

Bidwell puffed his cheeks and let out a breath. “Well alright. It’s not like keeping her secrets is going to do any good anymore.” He looked over his shoulder to where Jane assumed the Administrator’s body was. “So. Um…I guess if we want to go all the way back, you know the Mann brothers? Well there was like…a third secret Mann brother no one knew about. And since Helen’s basically been controlling both RED and BLU since the beginning, the third brother came in a few years ago and slowly started elbowing her out.”

“OKAY,” Scout said, mimicking the balloon in Jane’s stomach that just seemed to sink further and further into the abyss. “BACK UP. REWIND, HOLD THE PHONE _. What is this about controlling RED and BLU???_ ”

Bidwell was already sputtering out an explanation but Jane was drifting further from the conversation.

_Since the beginning. Controlling RED and BLU. She’s been dead for at least a week._

None of it made sense except bits of it did. Jane remembered that voice again, the one that had broken his heart, his confidence, his everything all at once. One that had gotten him to kill Tavish again and again.

His arm came forward, gripping his boyfriend by the shoulder. Tavish turned to look, his eye an amalgam of confusion and concern. Tavish glanced at Engie, as though trying to warn Jane now was not the time. But Jane didn’t care. He was sinking into black goo, his world going out from under him, and he had to take a few steps back. At some point he must have backed against the opposite wall, his vision clouding as Tavish came after him.

The conversation seemed to be coming from a mile away. Between Bidwell’s explanations and Scout’s shouting, it all came out. The gravel wars, the history of the Mann brothers, the Administrator’s role in it all. It was clear as day.

It was all a lie. Jane had known. Somewhere he’d known but had never wanted to admit it.

“Jane,” Tavish said, holding onto his shoulder as slid down the wall. “Stay here, stay with me.”

And Jane laughed. He must have sounded like an absolute lunatic but he couldn’t help it, and he grinned at Tavish with all his teeth. “We’re a couple of idiots, aren’t we Tav?”

The others turned from the screen at the sound of Jane’s manic laughter.

“You alright Soldier?” Engie asked him, alarmed to see the enemy Demoman leaning over him.

However, a second later, that was the least of his concerns. Scout moved fast. Of course he moved fast, he was a fucking Scout, and he was flying toward the computer in a blur of red.

Engie had left his gun there. He always was so distracted while he worked. And in his habitual inattentiveness, he’d let the shotgun slip his notice, winding up in the RED Scout’s hands.

“Not a step, hardhat,” Scout said, pointing it at Engie’s chest. Engie froze, and Jane watch a brief thought flash across his face like he might reach for his pistol. Scout narrowed his eyes. “Don’t even think about it.”

“Scout!” Tavish said, still leaning over Jane. “What the hell are you doin’?”

“What in the heck is going on over there?!” Bidwell demanded, but the TV couldn’t be further from Jane’s mind. His eyes were fixed on the Scout that was pointing a gun at his teammate and had very little mercy in his eyes.

“Demo, grab his weapons,” Scout said, pointing an elbow at Jane.

“Are you out of your mind, short stack?” Mary said, caught frustratingly between the two standoffs. He kept looking around him like he couldn’t decide where to focus his eyes. “We don’t need to shoot any BLUs! That’s what Male Miss Pauling just told us!”

“Yeah, I fucking heard.” Scout’s grip on the shotgun was wrong, like he was still trying to hold his stattergun. “That’s the only reason why I haven’t shot this knucklehead yet. Demo, hurry up and grab the guns.”

Tavish and Mary shared a look.

“No,” Tavish said softly.

Scout blinked. “Whadda you mean, ‘no’? You want to stand around being prisoners for the rest of the fucking war?”

“Scout, there’s no war.” Tavish said it softly, tightening his grip on Jane’s shoulder.

Jane was frozen, his stomach in knots while he still recovered from the news. He should just had over his weapons, tell the kid to stop pointing his gun at Engie. But most of him was still in shock, huddled against the wall like a sick man.

“Jackshit there isn’t no war.” Scout pulled himself up to his full height. “Did the past six years mean nothing to you? Did that fucking hole in the ground where our base used to be not clue you in?” He jabbed his gun in Engie’s direction again. “It doesn’t matter how things _used_ to be. We’re killing each other now, and you can bet we ain’t stopping until one team is dead.”

“Yeah but…that’s what they want!” Mary pointed one hand at the screen. “Someone killed the Administrator. Unless the TV man is seeing bodies, that someone set us all up to kill each other!”

Scout looked hesitantly between Mary and Tavish still hunkered over Jane. The Demoman seemed to almost be shielding him with his body, maybe a protective—if ineffectual—instinct. Scout seemed to deflate.

“Come on Scout,” Mary said, positioning himself between Scout and Engie. “We’re on the same side now.”

Scout shuffled back and forth on his feet, the whole room holding its breath.

“Fine,” he said finally. “But I’m not giving the gun back! If Biddy-boy is right, then there’s someone else out there who wants us dead.”

Jane watched the RED fuss to tuck his gun away, and saw the anxiety drain from Engie’s shoulders. When he felt a pat on his elbow, he realized Tavish was trying to help him to his feet. He allowed it, though he still felt like the world was pitching out of control.

“Wow. You guys sure have some issues,” Bidwell said, and the room turned its attention to him. He balked at the many eyes staring at him through the screen, and shuffled his papers. “But, um, just to let you know. I’m pretty sure it was robots who killed Helen. They have some pretty distinctive bullets so uh, no mystery there.”

“Distinctive?” Engie asked, and Jane could tell he was still watching the Scout out of the corner of his eye. “Distinctive as in they have one-dollar bills inside of them?”

“Yeah,” blinked Bidwell. “How’d you know that?”

Before Engie could respond, Scout said, “so that’s it? It’s this Grey Mann guy you’ve been talking about?”

“Um, well no,” Bidwell said. “You guys didn’t let me finish before I got all the way through. Grey is…also dead.”

Mary looked back at Tavish, who was still half-supporting Jane. They exchanged a look, clearly not happy to be back at square one.

“Now he’s dead too,” Scout said, throwing up his hands in defeat. “Well that’s just fucking great. With all the suspects are turning up swiss cheese, who’s freaking left?”

“You won’t let me finish!” Bidwell snapped, and instantly recoiled as Scout gave him a murderous glare. “I mean…uh…please let me finish? I was going to say that he was only killed a little bit ago. He was a genius you know, invented a new form of calculus when he was only a year old. He built all the robots and we figured…what if we just get rid of him? We thought they’d all shut down.”

By the look on his face, Jane could tell that plan went about as well as fighting a land war in Asia.

“That’s the last time we worked with Helen. She sent Miss Pauling, we provided some intel, and we were able to cut off the snake’s head.” Bidwell’s mouth was a grim line. “We lost Pauling, though. From what I understand, she made it just far enough to complete the job before succumbing to her injuries.”

“Shit…” Scout mumbled.

“Yeah,” Engie agreed. A moment of silence hung in the room. Jane had thought about what Pauling’s involvement might be ever since the Administrator’s voice had made its announcement, but he’d never felt any real vitriol towards the assistant. She was just charming like that.

“And that’s basically where everything went to heck,” Bidwell said sadly. “At first it seemed like the tides were changing, but the…the robots got smarter. There started being these new ones, these Engineer bots, which invented tactics for the robots whenever Helen’s people were fighting them. And not just battle smart, but more dangerous too. The fact that they knew to kill Helen and are using her resources is enough proof of that.”

The mercs, RED and BLU, stood and absorbed the information. Jane thought of the robotic twang of the Administrator’s voice, the green lights blinking as Sniper put his hands in the air.

They were trapped by robotic versions of themselves.

* * *

Mary only barely listened to the rest the conversation. Now that he suddenly found himself not a prisoner anymore, he didn’t know how to act in the metal room with all these people. Jane had given him the Righteous Bison at some point, but Mary didn’t feel any safer with the gun in his hands. The real weapon that concerned him was Scout’s, who despite the tightrope walk of peace they were taking, looked about ready to turn at any moment.

The computer room felt like a powder keg, ready to blow.

Bidwell and Engie were talking, mostly about Hydro. Bidwell had info on how the robots worked, and Engie was trying to supply information in kind. It didn’t interest Scout, who sat against the wall, flipping the safety on his shotgun on and off.

Mary sat down next Tavish and Jane. “So, I guess we’re allies now.”

“Almost,” Tavish said. “We’re all gettin’ tae be the best of buds. Except Scout.”

“I wish we hadn’t let him keep the gun,” Mary said, casting the kid a glance.

“You want tae try and take it away from him?” Tavish asked with a raise of his eyebrow.

Mary grimaced. That would be a decidedly bad idea. Instead he focused on Jane and Tavish. The BLU Soldier had taken the news hard. Not the news about being attacked by robots, strangely enough, but the fact that RED and BLU had been decidedly more fake than they were lead to believe. Mary had been shocked too, but he supposed the WAR! hung heaviest between the two that had started it all, and finding it was all meaningless had to be rough.

“How are you doing Jane?” he asked cautiously.

“Better if I wasn’t underground and suffocating to death,” Jane replied flatly.

Tavish gave Jane’s arm a squeeze. They had been leaning against each other, more open affection than Mary had ever seen them commit. Maybe it was the fact that there was nothing to lose now, not when things were so goddamned muddled. Or maybe it was just the fact that they needed each other, and damn the consequences. Only Scout seemed to care, and simply cast them a sidelong glance every once in a while before staring out into space.

Mary wished Graham were here. Sure Tavish and Jane were his friends, but he wanted someone to gently lean into him the way Tavish did for Jane. It just wasn’t the same as a friendship lean.

Engie came over, the signal from the TV winking to static as the signal was lost.

“Well,” he began. “I didn’t get much. Seems like Bidwell knows just about as much as we do about this whole Sudden Death thing. There are records of it in the TF Industries rulebook, but other than that he has to go digging to find anything more. It might be a lead, it might not be, but worst case is we’re in the same position we were in before.”

“Are you sure we can trust him?” Tavish asks, looking up at Engie. “I mean, for all we know, he’s the one who killed the Administrator in the first place.”

Engie frowned, the insanity of talking to a member of the enemy team so casually still awkward to him. “It’s possible, but unlikely. He would have come up with a less ridiculous cover story for one.” Engie looked back over at the screen. “That doesn’t mean I trust him. I think he’ll do his best to help us for now, as long as we’re both getting rear-ended by these robots. But Mann Co. doesn’t do anything for free.”

“You can say that again,” Mary chipped in glumly. He thought regretfully about how much money he’d spent on his Blue Mew rocket launcher.

Mary was about to ask how long Bidwell was going to take, when footsteps echoed up from one of the tunnels.

They’d all forgotten about Pyro. No one had even tried to bring him back when the signal had come in, and in the chaos that followed the firebug had fallen off everyone’s mind. So, when the blue-clad mercenary came around the corner, the occupants of the room got to their feet in bewilderment, even more surprised to find they weren’t alone.

Trailing behind Pyro, being tugged along by the hand, was Graham.

Mary didn’t even think. He was already rushing forward, relief welling up inside him as he collided with the mass of body that was his boyfriend. He hugged him, his body emptying of the anxiety that had been coiling inside him since yesterday.

Pyro call of triumph was cut short as the RED Soldier barreled passed them. They fumbled for their weapon, thinking they were under attack, until Engie called out, “Py! Py, it’s alright. The REDs are alright now.”

Ignoring the conversation behind him, Mary felt the hugged returned. “You’re okay…” he muttered, reaffirming the obvious.

“Barely,” Graham replied with a hint of a laugh in his voice. There was sadness in it too, and Mary felt his stomach sink.

“How did you get here? What happened to you?” he said, his voice cracking. He leaned back just enough to see a cut up the side of Graham’s jaw. “Graham did they…? I’m sorry this is all my fault.” He’d let these things happen to Graham; gotten him tortured, left him to die in the building…and for what? For stupid loyalty that didn’t mean anything.

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” Graham insisted, pulling Mary’s hands off his face. “Nothing happened to me. Well, nothing that was your fault.”

Mary didn’t believe him, but their reunion was interrupted by Engie clearing his throat behind them. They both turned to look, Pyro and Engie now standing next to each other, both with equal looks of vexation.

“Demo,” Engie said conversationally. “I was just telling Pyro that the REDs are going to be our allies from now on. But it appears you already knew that.” He gestured towards Mary. “Care to explain?”

“Er…” Graham began, and Mary sidled out of the hug awkwardly. He didn’t leave Graham’s side though. He never would again, not as long as he lived. “Well. Uh, everyone. This is Major. He’s my friend. Who’s on RED team.”

“He’s the reason Demo went off to RED in the first place.” This statement came from, to everyone’s surprise, Jane, who now was leaned against the wall with his arms folded. Tavish stood next to him, uncomfortable, but Jane must have lost all ability to give a shit.

“You knew about this,” Engie said. It wasn’t a question. “Any chance you were going to tell the rest of us at some point?”

“I didn’t want you maggots coming in the first place, Nancy Drew,” Jane snarled. “So get the fuck off your high horse and come down with the rest of us vermin. You got a lot of goddamned nerve pretending you’re shocked about team secrets when you’re sticking your nose into every pile of shit you come across.”

And that pretty much stunned the Engineer into silence. The rest of the room looked around at each other, observing the weird conglomeration they had become. Jane either didn’t notice the discomfort or didn’t care, and he stood in the center of the room.

“Listen up, maggots,” he boomed. “We’ve been fucked over. Every last goddmaned one of us. Now we’re all here, and we’re all trapped, and the only thing left to do is survive until we get the hell out of here. RED and BLU don’t mean shit. Apparently they never did. And if ANY MAGGOT has a problem with that, they’re free to leave right now.”

He looked around the room, helmet pushed up to make eye contact with every single person. No one made a move.

“That’s what I thought.” The stiff silence continued to settle until Jane whipped around. “Pyro! Did you find those rations?!”

Pyro jumped, shrinking in their place behind Engie. But, once they understood what Jane was saying, they nodded, and cautiously brought forward a duffle bag Mary hadn’t noticed until now. Jane took it, and nodded.

“Good work private. We are on step further away from death.”

And just like that Jane started distributing the found food evenly. It was odd, watching all these people that had been at each other’s throats a moment ago sit down and have a meal together.

As Graham opened his water bottle, he whispered, to Mary, “so…what’s this about and RED and BLU never mattering?”

“Uh. Hmm,” Mary began. “That might take a while.”

As he filled Graham and Pyro in, he dug into what might have been the best meal of his life. Sure it was just water and old cheese Pyro had pillage from a still-working fridge, but the weakness from their day’s hike seemed to melt away in their presence. The food, and having Graham back did wonders, and he felt more alive than he ever had.

“Hud huhha huh?” Pyro asked once Mary was done. “Huh uhhh budda hu had ah hu. Dha! Hudda…”

“Uhg,” Graham said, as though the memory hurt him. “Fine, I suppose fair’s fair. But you might want to get comfortable lads. This is a long one.”


	13. You Shot Church

“And you know the rest,” Graham said, taking a swig of his water and wishing it was whiskey. “Went intae the tunnels, wandered for a bit until I ran intae Pyro.”

He waved his hand over at the BLU Pyro, who wiggled happily with their chin in their hands.

“God damn,” Mary said, struck hard by the story.

“Aye,” Graham agreed, and looked around at his audience to see they shared the same sentiment.

The RED Scout had stopped fiddling with his gun halfway through the story, staring at Graham with hollow eyes. He looked like he’d aged a decade, and Graham tried not to look at him too much.

He was unable to avoid him any longer when the kid asked, “so did Spy really do it? He was the one who blew up the base?”

Graham made sure to keep any hesitation out of his voice when he said, “it’s possible, I guess. But we’ll never know now, one way or another.” He took another drink, trying to drown the lump in his throat.

“Fuck…” Scout muttered.

“What about Sniper?” Mary insisted. “Did you ever find out where he went?”

Graham shrugged. “Nae a clue. But, if you lot got out through the tunnels without dyin’ maybe he did too. Only reason I can guess that we dinnae see him at the surface.”

“Damn,” Engie said, shaking his head. “I can’t believe you survived all that shit. Playing ‘em off each other like that…all these years I’ve known you and I’d never expect you to have the teeth.”

“Aw Engie, you always say the sweetest things.” Graham rolled his eye.

Everyone laughed. Everyone except Tavish, who’d been awfully quiet throughout the whole story. Graham shot him a smile, hoping to lighten his mood, but the other Demoman just stared back at him with an expression Graham couldn’t quite place.

“Some rescue mission this was,” Jane grumbled. “We didn’t even _think_ about the dam base. And the only reason we even found you was because we stumbled over you like bat droppings in a cave.”

“Does everyone need tae insult me right now?” Graham complained. “C’mon, I just survived bein’ nearly killed. Twice! A trigger-happy RED and house o’ cards base. Bloody fuckin’ buildin’, no way was it up tae code.”

“None o’ them are,” Tavish said suddenly. “All they’re really for is tae hold up the façade, with a couple of utilities thrown in so we dunnae revolt. Water. Electricity. Gas.” Tavish blinked at Graham. When he next spoke, his voice was carefully controlled. “Graham. How did you know the collapse was caused by a gas explosion?”

The other BLUs looked at Tavish strangely, and Graham tried to keep his voice from shaking when he replied, “I already said: I got a look at the tank when we were diggin’ up the lab.”

Tavish shook his head. “That…doesnae make sense. The gas tank is under the lab sure but…It’s built at least a couple hundred feet underneath. No one should have been able tae see it, no matter how blasted tae bits the lab was.”

Tavish’s words said _no one_ , but the unspoken meaning in his voice said _you_.

Graham swallowed the lump of anxiety that was trying to strangle him. “Well…I had to tell Spy somethin’ dinnae I?” He laughed. No one joined him.

“You lied tae Spy or you saw the tank? Which was it?” Tavish asked plainly, somehow the desperate tone only making Graham feel worse.

“I...lied,” Graham managed to stutter out. When he looked around the room, there were looks of confusion on everyone except the Engineer, whose mouth was turning into a hard line.

“Then how’d you know the tank was in the lab in the first place?” Tavish said, his expression open and pleading. _Wanting_ Graham to give a believable answer.

Graham couldn’t. “Well I…” He couldn’t stand Jane’s confused stare, nor the one on Mary’s face he knew must be there but refused to look at. “The bases are…pretty similar so I…took a guess...”

“Graham,” Tavish said, and Graham was forced to look at him. “The scoreboard gave BLU two points.”

Oh god. He had forgotten…

“And that wouldn’t happen unless…” Tavish began.

“Those REDs were killed by a BLU,” Jane finished, his words ahead of his thoughts, saying them aloud before the Soldier could realize what they meant.

The others caught up fast enough. Engie frowned, face a mask of chagrin, uneasiness rising with that of the room’s. Tavish was still looking at Graham with that sad face, one that was sorry to be right.

Mary realized it too. He was on his feet, the sudden movement attracting Graham’s attention. “How DARE you?” he demanded, shaking his fist at the room. “After everything about robots and little grey men and you blame _him?!_ I have never heard a more cowardly accusation! I should-”

“I just needed a distraction!” Graham blurted before Mary could defend him further. His confession froze the room, every set of eyes turning to him. “All I could do was make do with the tools I had, and the gas pipe was right there…I wasnae thinkin’! I never meant tae cause anythin’, just get the Medic out o’ the room long enough tae escape.” He looked at his knees, no longer able to meet the gaze of the room. “It was an accident.”

The truth burned him, leaving a disgusting aftertaste in his mouth. He heard Mary shuffle beside him. “What…what do you mean?” His voice was heavy, disbelieving. But he was asking anyway, giving Graham one more chance.

Graham still didn’t look up. Still couldn’t face him. “’M sorry. I’m so sorry.”

The only sound in the underground bunker was the gentle chirp of the scrapped computer, waiting patiently for another signal. The white noise was awful, deafening, threatening to crush them all-

“ _I fucking knew it!_ ”

Graham’s head whipped up. In all the guilt and confessions, the RED Scout had slipped his mind.

“I fucking knew it was you bastards!” Scout’s voice was high, a terrifying look in his eye, and suddenly Graham realized how deep in shit he’d gotten himself. Scout was on his feet and gripping tightly a shotgun barrel in one fist. “YOU FUCKING SON OF A BITCH.”

After that things moved too fast. It was like on the top of the dam, watching Spy fall in slow motion, only it was his own life flashing into non-existence this time. He tried to get to his feet, to move, to be a harder target, but his whole body shifted as though it was in molasses. Scout was moving forward, hands fumbling to position his gun, nothing but pure revenge in his eyes.

“Scout! Wait!” Mary was already standing up. The others were reacting too, but too slowly, and Mary was the one who came forward.

Standing between Graham and Scout, rushing to stop him, grabbing the shotgun even as Scout found his grip.

“GET THE FUCK OFF ME,” Scout screamed.

Jane was drawing something from his jacket. There was a spilt second struggle.

Then the gun went off, and Mary’s body jerked.

* * *

Mary felt like he was falling. He would describe it as floating maybe, but floating implied a certain degree of painlessness, which was definitely not something the Soldier was experiencing. In fact, it felt like his whole upper half was on fire, a sensation he was acutely familiar with after years of the BLU Pyro’s afterburn.

His body spasmed, reacting as the gunshot blast took him full in the stomach, shredding his insides. He still had a grip on the gun, Scout holding the other end and trying unsuccessfully to wretch the weapon from his grip. He couldn’t let that happen. Had to get between Scout and Graham.

Also, his grip on the gun was the only thing keeping him upright now.

Suddenly a shovel appeared out of the corner of Mary’s eye. It swung inward, and Scout disappeared from view. Dropped down like a bag of rocks.

And without him to lean on anymore, so did Mary.

The next few seconds seemed to go by both sluggishly and instantly, since the next thing he knew he was on his back, looking at the BLU Soldier hovering above him. His insides felt like they were everywhere, and they probably were considering Jane’s hands were covered in blood as he helped Mary lay backwards.

“Gr…” Mary managed to stutter, but he didn’t have to worry more than that when Graham glided into view. He allowed himself a sigh of relief. Graham was unhurt, but from his expression he looked to be in incredible pain.

“Someone get some fucking bandages!” Jane screamed above him, and Mary wanted to tell him not to shout so loud. His whole body hurt, and the noise wasn’t helping. “Well then rip up a fucking shirt! Pyro! Go back and look for anything that might help!”

“Where’s Scout?” Mary managed to say through the ringing in his ears. “You didn’t kill him, did you?”

“No talking,” Jane told him, and disappeared from Mary’s view again. There was the sound of tearing fabric, and then excruciating pain as something touched his chest.

He screamed. It didn’t sound so loud to his own ears, but Graham’s eyes widen in panic, and he vowed not to scream next time if it made his boyfriend that upset.

“Engie,” Graham said, his voice cracking. “We need a dispenser.”

The BLU Engineer’s voice came from somewhere to Mary’s left. He tried to turn his head, and felt his helmet roll off instead. His noise of distress was cut off as Engie said, “Demo…it ain’t going to work for a RED.”

“BLOODY BUILD IT ANYWAY,” Graham said, and the ringing Mary’s ears got louder. “You have eleven bloody PHDs, fuckin’ figure it out!”

“Demo,” Jane’s voice called, and Mary screamed again as something pulled tight around his chest. Jane ignored him. “Support his head.”

Mary watched Graham nod, hesitantly, then felt himself being drawn backwards into the Demoman’s lap. It was more comfortable here. He could look up at the red earthen ceiling, only blocked partially by Graham’s upside down head.

“You’re…you’re goin’ tae be okay,” he told Mary softly.

Mary nodded. That was good. In all honestly he thought he was dying, but if Graham said he’d be okay then everything must be fine.

He tried to hear things rather than feel things so that the agony of the blood soaking through his clothes wouldn’t make him pass out. There was tearing cloth, and the metallic ring of a wrench clattering against steel.Tavish floated into his field of view, jacket and blast armor gone. The only thing left was his red t-shirt, stained with sweat from their hike through the mountains. He knelt beside Mary and squeezed his hand.

“Hold on lad, alright?” he muttered.

Mary nodded. “Graham says I’m going to be okay,” he assured.

Tavish looked up at his fellow Demoman, eye filled with doubt. Graham returned it, and Mary opened his mouth to assure them he’d been through worse before a horrible cough filled him. Red blood splattered out of his mouth, going up into the air and staining the side of his lips. His lungs felt like they were filled with acid.

“Fuck,” Jane whispered. Mary didn’t know if he’d ever heard the BLU that emotional. Maybe only once. He also sounded very, very far away. “Tavish. Help me hold the pressure.”

Mary felt Tavish’s hand slip out of his own, and ached at the loss. But the two of them were there, just out of sight. And he had Graham.

Graham was stoking his hair. It was something to hold onto, mixing together with the sound of a dispenser being built. A dispenser that would work. But if it didn’t…

Mary was reminded of something. A movie he’d watched a long time ago, with a soldier dying valiantly in his best friend’s arms. And that wasn’t so bad, as far as heroic deaths go; sacrificing yourself for you fellow comrades, going out surrounded by people you…

Mary reached a hand up to gently cup the side of Graham’s face. “I love you,” he reminded him.

Graham placed his free hand over Mary’s. “I love you too…” he said, almost too softly to hear.

Mary coughed again, but it had no strength in it. His body was staring to still, to shut down, and the familiar emptiness of bloodloss was calling to him. Graham leaned down, forehead touching Mary’s, eye closed. Mary could feel the tears dripping down his nose, burning his cheeks. Or maybe those were his own.

He closed his eyes. It wasn’t much use keeping them open anyway when the darkness was already pulling at the edges of his vision. He let his breathing slow, and made sure that his last thoughts were of his skin against Graham’s.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im so sorry


	14. And Then There Was One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for being patient with this chapter guys. I'll be back on a regular schedule now

The dispenser squeaked to life. Graham barely saw as the cobbled-together body of the machine rise, finally opening its sides and pushing out a lower shelf. Two streams of blue light began to flow out of it, capturing Graham and Jane in their glow.

Mary’s body remained untouched by its rays.

Graham hadn’t moved. Not since Mary had stopped breathing several minutes ago and Jane had realized his furious attempts to keep the blood inside were a lost cause. The dispenser continue to hum happily, too little too late.

After another minute, Jane stood. He put a hand on Graham’s shoulder, but the Demoman barely reregistered the touch, dead to the world even as Jane sighed and left him behind.

How had this happened? This wasn’t supposed to happen like this, it wasn’t supposed to end in a dark cave with Major giving his life only to be cut down with his own teammate. It wasn’t supposed to be some fucking butterfly effect where every small action had built until the universe had decided to axe off the only person who was worth a damn.

Graham gently traced a thumb along the side of Mary’s face. Compared to the warmth emanating from the dispenser, he felt cold, like wherever the two of them were right now wasn’t really real. The cave seemed far away, from the Engineer who was hiding just out of vision, to the sound of Tavish sniffling as Jane tried to comfort him. The red walls, the beeping computer, Scout’s body only lying a few feet away…

None of it reached Graham. Not even Scout whose arms were bound while a shovel-shaped welt pulsed on his head. Graham couldn’t even manage the hatred to look at the RED.

How could Major be so alive one second and so gone the next, evidence splattered over the floor and the front of Scout’s shirt? This was so wrong, so… _incorrect_. They were supposed to make it, escape into the hills…

“You’re going to have to talk to him at some point,” Jane said quietly.

The voice came from far away. It wasn’t talking to Graham, and even if it had, he probably wouldn’t have listened.

Tavish’s voice softly replied. “You should be the one. I won’t be able to help.”

“I…can’t. You’re his friend, he’ll listen to you.”

“I’m his friend, but you’re his _teammate.”_ Tavish’s voice raised, filtering through Graham’s like he was remembering a dream instead of hearing his friends speak about him like he wasn’t in the room. “You have tae be the one to do it.”

Silence as Jane failed to come up with a response.

Finally, the BLU said, “fine. But you have to deal with _him_.”

Probably talking about Scout. It didn’t matter at all.

More silence, the sound of Tavish sighing, cracking of a neck.

“Aye. I will, just as soon as-”

Before he could finish, the central television screen crackled to life.

* * *

Graham’s head jerked up, already hearing the voice on the screen saying, “…ello…mr…H…elen’s mercs?”

And that voice could only belong to Bidwell, the image clearing and revealing a much scrawnier man than Graham had predicted. He was squinting, as though trying to see them all in the dark of the room.

Engie stood up, moving to the center of the screen. “Now’s not exactly a good time, Bidwell.”

“Holy shit. Is that guy dead?”

Engie sighed and rubbed his temples.

Something clicked in Graham’s mind. This was the guy who had told the others about the robots. Someone from the outside. Someone who could help.

“What is it son?” Engie asked. “If it ain’t important, make it fast.”

“But it is! Important I mean.” Bidwell waved a clipboard in front of the screen. “I think I know how the robots are holding your place.”

Everyone who wasn’t already looking at the screen sure was now, laser-focused attention as the dark-hair man shared his findings.

“I might have been able to do it a lot faster if you guys had told me you were camped out in Bilious Gorge, but you know. Hindsight’s twenty-twenty.”

“ _Bidwell_ ,” Engie demanded. “Point?”

“Right,” Bidwell said, fumbling with his papers. “Anyway, after I cross-referenced and found ‘Hydro’, I was able to get why we had no idea the robots were there. _They showed up without their carriers_.”

When this reveal didn’t have the reaction Bidwell was looking for, Engie said, “and why exactly is that important?”

Bidwell made a frustrated noise. “Because the carriers are _everything_. They’re not just the transport—they’re the robot’s control center. Look.”

He disappeared for a second, coming back with a TOP SECRET folder he flipped open.

“The robots are dumb,” he said, pulling up a diagram of a transport carrier with dotted lines off it. “Really dumb. We found that they had to be in direct contact with Grey Mann, or they needed to be close to the carriers in order to receive instructions. Later the Engineer bots could to some of the calculations, but not enough for a bunch of Sniper bots to hit a target at extensive range.”

“But they _did_ do that,” Engie told him.

“Exactly,” Bidwell grinned. “So I tried to find any signals and compared them to the frequencies the robots use. And I found something. _The robots are being controlled from underneath the gorge_.”

Graham felt his arms constrict, unconsciously cradling Mary’s head even tighter. “Whoever’s runnin’ this shit show is _down here_?” he asked, his voice cracking after its deafening silence.

“Well, not exactly,” Bidwell said, scratching his head. “The signal is coming from down there, but that doesn’t mean it’s being sent remotely. However, I think if you guys were able to shut if off, the robots wouldn’t be a problem anymore.”

Graham’s brain was working in overtime. The scoreboard, the cameras, the robots. It was all being centrally controlled. There was another control room, one that was still active, still useful. He shockingly set Mary’s head down and approached the screen.

“If we find this place,” he asked, daring to believe, daring to hope. “Would respawn controls be there too?”

“Respawn?” Bidwell blinked. “I mean, I don’t know. There’s nothing for them where I’m at, so I guess each base must have its own system. That’s uh, not really my forte though.”

Graham felt something. Something besides the emptiness he’d been filling his chest with just so the reality wouldn’t set in. “Then we should bloody go now! Where is it?” he demanded, lunging forward, gripping the sides of the screen. “Where’s the signal comin’ from?”

“Demo,” Engie said, and then there was a hand on his shoulder, pulling him back. “You know it doesn’t work like that.”

“But it might!” Graham’s voice was frantic now, that bubble inside him to fragile, still willing to pull him back up. “W-what if we could do a hard reset? Then he’d…come back. Respawn would bring him back…” His voice cracked, and he realized how deep the pity in Engie’s eyes went.

“If we did a hard reset,” Engie began patiently. “All it would do is wipe our information. Respawn can’t bring him back when it’s off, just like if it’d happened outside of its range.” He blinked, then finished, “I’m sorry.”

It broke. That last thread of hope Graham had been clinging to. He took a step back from Engie, staggering like his legs were going to go out from under him. That was it then. Mary was really gone. That dumbass who loved raccoons and collected heads and who looked at Graham with the happiest eyes no human should be able to posses. He was dead and not coming back.

And it was Graham’s fault.

His legs did collapse then. Thankfully Jane was suddenly by his side, supporting him until he could lean against a metal wall. Small mercy. What did it matter if he dropped dead when the only person worth living for was right over there in a pool of his own congealing blood?

The sobbing took over. He wished he were dead. It almost felt like it, his whole body shutting down as he curled further in on himself.

There were so many things…they were going to paint the living room next winter. Mary had wanted to see Philadelphia in the spring. They had talked about getting rings.

Just ornamental ones, no service but…something that would prove it to each other.

God fucking…dammit.

Graham wasn’t sure how long he leaned over his knees, sobbing uncontrollably. He ignored it when Tavish tried to make him take a bottle of water, the rasping in his throat something he felt like he deserved. He heard Bidwell politely excuse himself soon after Graham had started.

It might have been an hour. Maybe. When he managed to lift his head, Tavish was gone and Jane was sitting close by him, cross-legged and silent.

He looked at Graham when he realized the Demoman had stilled himself somewhat. “We should…move him,” he said, how to comfort someone beyond the Soldier more than ever.

Graham hesitated. But he still nodded. That seemed the right thing to do.

He looked over at Mary, but didn’t have it in him to go forward. The Soldier was exactly where Graham had left him, eyes closed and blood dripping from the corner of his mouth.

“…Do you want me to help?” Jane asked cautiously.

Graham nodded again. That he could do. He could take Mary someplace better, less open.

He stood on shaky legs, and Jane followed him toward the dead Soldier.

* * *

Night had fallen by the time the RED Demoman had hauled Scout to the surface. When he’d left, Jane had been beside the crying Graham, unsuccessfully trying to be any sort of help. Demo figured there was nothing they could do for him. His world must be shattered, something Demo knew he could only experience a part of. Mary had been Demo’s only friend for a very long time but…there was something untouchable about losing the love of your life.

So Demo had left, the Engineer quietly occupying himself after he’d pretty much ground his teammates heart into the dust. Demo didn’t blame him though. It wouldn’t be healthy to keep Graham’s hopes alive when they going to be eventually crushed.

Demo propped Scout up against the ravine wall. A cold settled into his bones, the desert dusk cooling the stone quickly, but he wasn’t leaving. This was something he couldn’t do in the confines of the tunnels.

It took a long time for Scout to wake up. Unsurprising, considering how hard Jane had hit him. The Soldier was probably aiming to kill, and it was only an accident that Scout had avoided serious injury. Demo found it hard to be grateful. Things would certainly be easier if he hadn’t lived.

Finally, as gooseflesh settled on Scout’s skin, he began to stir, lifting his chin and blinking his eyes. When he looked up, he saw Demo sitting across from him, the Half Zatoichi laying across his knees.

“Uhhhhgg,” he groaned. “What…?”

Demo didn’t respond. He wasn’t here for pleasantries, and nothing he said would make Scout go any faster.

The kid looked around where they were, but realized when he tried to turn his head too far that his arms were bound behind his back. His legs too. He squirmed, not yet understanding.

“Yo, what is…?” His face scrunched up suddenly, as though remembering the pain in the back of his head made him feel the throbbing all over again. “Freaking hell. Demo, what…what happened?”

“I think you know,” Demo said, keeping his face carefully clear of all emotion. He couldn’t crack, not yet.

Scout looked at Demo carefully, eyes wide and desperate. “…Soldier. Is he…?”

“Dead,” Demo told him flatly.

Scout’s face collapsed into a torrent of pain. He closed his eyes, dropping his head back against the stone and let out a feeble, “Jesus shit.”

Demo didn’t say anything. He let Scout sit there, squirming, coming to terms with the events of the past hour. It wasn’t until he opened his eyes again that he managed to say, “I didn’t want…”

“I know.”

“He got in the way,” Scout muttered, and Demo didn’t know if he was talking to himself or his judge. “He was playing for that BLU fuck who…” Scout whipped his head around suddenly, forgetting he could hardly move. “Where the hell is he? I’ll fucking kill him-”

“That’s nae your concern,” Demo said, pushing himself to his feet. His knees popped after his time on the dirt.

“Demo,” Scout pleaded, “he killed Engie. And Medic.” He blinked, as though realizing something. “And shit, he even killed _Spy_. You can’t just let him get away with that.”

“He did do all o’ those things,” Demo said, voice flat. “And you killed Soldier.”

Scout went pale, but he didn’t have anything to say to that.

“You were my responsibility Scout.” Demo approached the Scout’s prone form, blade hanging from his limp arm. “I saved your bloody life. So in a way, I’m partly tae blame. But I cannae trust you anymore.”

Scout looked from the sword to Demo’s face, a moment of shock on his face before it melted into disgust. “Fine. I guess you’ve chosen whose side you’re on.” He took his eyes off Demo, staring instead into the dirt. “Do your fucking worst.”

Demo stepped beside him. He shoved his boot against Scout’s shoulder, pushing him to the side to bring the Zatoichi down-

On the wires around Scout’s wrists.

Scout blinked, pulling his freed hands in front of him even as Demo cut the restraints around his legs. He looked up, not even relieved to be alive.

“I want you gone,” Demo told him. “You’re goin’ tae run as fast as your little arse can, which I know is damn fast.”

Scout stood, stumbling back and away from the entrance to the tunnel. He looked Demo once over, eyes void of anything but contempt. “Where the hell do you want me to go?”

Demo shrugged. “You know where Pyro and Heavy are. Or go on a little scavenger hunt for Sniper. I dunnae fucking care. But if I ever even think you’ve come back here, I’m assumin’ it’s tae kill more o’ my friends, and I won’t hesitate tae put this sword right through your neck.” He raised the blade to illustrate his point.

Scout barked a humorless laugh. “In that case, why not kill me now if you’re so set on switching teams?”

Demo looked at Scout. He thought he’d only had softness sadness left inside him to be crushed by Mary’s death, but this shit-mouthed little merc was finding a way to make him wrong. “Because I’ve already lost too many friends.”

A flurry of changing expressions crossed Scout’s faced. He opened and closed his mouth several times, as though deciding what to say. Eventually, he couldn’t come up with anything that would be worthy, and he turned and ran into the slowly encroaching darkness.


	15. That’s Your Plan? All You Said Was Whisper Whisper Whisper

The BLU Engineer looked up when Demo entered, tinkering with some small PDA in the same place Demo had left him. “Where’d you take your Scout?”

“He won’t be a problem anymore,” Demo replied shortly.

Engie looked at him, and for a moment Demo thought he was going to press the subject. But then Engie just nodded, and went back to work. They were the only people in the room, with only a bloodstain on the tile floor to remember what had happened

“Where’s…” Demo began before struggling how to phrase it. Certainly they were beyond keeping real names a secret at this point, but it felt indecent to use them straight to the Engineer’s face. Like it was a level of intimacy he wasn’t anywhere near. “…Where are your Demoman and Soldier?”

“They uh, went to go take care of the body.”

Ah. Damn. If Graham was up and moving around, that was something at least. The last time Demo had seen him, Jane had been unsuccessfully trying to comfort the broken man. Demo had told the Soldier he just needed to keep trying but…his faith in being able to fix this wasn’t good.

“Do you think he’s goin’ tae…come back from this?” Demo asked more to himself than to Engie.

He got a response anyways. “Can’t say. You seem’d to know more about that whole thing than I ever did.”

Demo glared at the Engineer. “We need him if we’re goin’ tae get out o’ this whole mess. And he’s just lost someone important tae him, so you better nae say anythin’ tae mess him up worse.”

Engie blustered for moment. “I _knew_ he was with someone, I just didn’t know it was a…” He fumbled with his words at the last second, “…a RED.”

“Hm,” Demo grunted.

It was odd seeing the Engineer so awkward; that was until Demo suddenly remembered this wasn’t the real Engie. Or at least, not the Engie who’d he’d come to know as a friend over the past half a decade. This was just another lookalike, one that was an all too painful reminder of his dead teammate.

As he was trying to suppress any more thoughts of his friends, Pyro came sprinting in from the closest tunnel, out of breath and a medkit clutched to their chest.

“Hudd! Mum hudda!” They whipped their head around, and when they only saw Engie and Demo in the deadened control room, their shoulders dropped. “Mur hur…?”

The silence was all the answer they needed.

They looked at the blood at the edge of the room. “Hudda hurm mur mua.”

Engie shrugged, and watched Pyro delicately set their medkit against a broken screen. Then he said, “you missed quite a lot partner. Actually, you too.” He directed the last statement at Demo. “Bidwell and I talked a little more, and I think we have a pretty solid plan for getting out of this hellhole.”

Demo’s spirits rose. But the hope was bitter in his mouth when he remembered that Mary was dead, and that might not even be the worst case scenario. Any of them might still die when the fucking team loyalties were as deadly as the robots.

“Dare I ask what it is?” he said glumly.

“Hey,” Engie said, “don’t give up before you’ve even heard me out.” When Demo just frowned, he continued. “It’s pretty straight forward, based on what we know. We take a team compromising of me ‘n someone else who’s good enough to bring down their systems. We work our way through the tunnels, and use _this_ to tell us when we’re getting close to the source.”

Engie reached behind the computer, pulling out the PDA he’d been working on when Demo walked in. It had a small screen, not yet on, and several buttons that he could only guess the purpose of.

“I think it’s attuned to the robots signal by now,” Engie said. “I’m willing to give it a shot.”

Demo looked down at the PDA and back up. “What’s the catch?”

“The catch is, when we get down there, that place sure as shit ain’t going to be undefended.”

“I figured,” Demo said. “What are talkin’ here? Couple o’ robots? Big-arse lasers we got tae do a bunch o’ flips through? Riddles?”

Engie shrugged and said, “you guess is as good as mine,” but something in the way he frowned made it clear there was something more to this.

“Alright. Anythin’ else tae this plan?”

Engie let out a breath of hot air from his nose. “Yeah. Unfortunately. I was right when I was thinking MannCo wasn’t helping us out without something in return.” He rolled back his shoulders and said, “they want us to kill all the robots.”

“ _All_ o’ them?” Demo demanded at the same time Pyro said,  “hmma ha?”

“Yep,” Engie said, popping the p. “Without central control, the robots should be easy to destroy. They’ll only have their Engineer bots for orders, and won’t be able to put up enough resistance to stand against a human enemy. Bidwell made it seem like it’d be stepping on cockroaches.” He grimaced. “But, I have my doubts. He has incentive to…downplay the threat level.”

“Well then what’s tae bloody stop us from walking out? Once the signal’s down, I say we just sneak on past and say fuck off tae the hunks o’ junk,” Demo snarled.

“Our _incentive_ ,” Engie stressed, making it clear that the word wasn’t one he would have used, “for destroying the rest of the robots is that MannCo will help us once we’re out of this mess. Namely, not killing us in an attempt to cover this whole thing up.”

“Bastards,” Demo growled.

“Damn straight,” Engie agreed. “But they have a point. When the central control is destroyed, it might be the only chance anyone’s got to kill those money-gobbling machines. We don’t know what’s been controlling them. If they just stand there in the middle of the desert, someone’s bound to come and turn them on again.”

Demo sighed, rubbing his temples and casting his gaze around the cavern. He wondered if the other control room was like this. If it had a wall of screens, only ones that worked and cast their burrowing vision all through the veins of Hydro with a dozen eyes, permanently watching.

“Fine,” he sighed. “Suppose we do use your little beepy-beep machine and knock out the signal. Do we really have the capacity to kill over a hundred?”

“I’ve been thinking on that,” Engie mused. “The way I see it, it’ll take a long time for a team to get back out from the tunnels, even knowing where they’re going. We should have a B team, up on the surface, ready to go as soon as the robots turn off. Some mercs who are competent, good in numbers, and still free of backstabbings.”

Pyro tilted their head. “Murdda huh?”

Engie nodded. “We go get BLU team.”

“Hudda!” Pyro punched their fist in the air. “Huma! Murrda!”

Demo blew air from his nose, but didn’t have any real objection to the plan. BLU was really the only people left who had been untouched by this shitshow. Safe and comfortable in their base, un-sabotaged by a particularly crafty prisoner.

Okay. That parallel was a little too dark.

“That just leaves you,” Engie finished, ending his explanation on the lone RED. Both he and Pyro looked at the Demoman expectantly.

Demo shrugged. “If you’re all goin’ back to your team, I think I’ll just have to hang back. As much as I think we’re on the same side, I dunnae know them and they dunnae know me.”

“I getcha,” Engie nodded. “We’ll have to run this whole plan by the team and get them to go along with it. I don’t blame you if you want to stay out of sight.”

Demo nodded. After everything, every attempt to keep his team from splintering like plywood, he’d somehow ended up the lone RED behind enemy lines.

“However,” Engie said, interrupting his thoughts, “there is something else you could help with. I’m going in those tunnels to blow up some bots and disable the signal. Ideally, I’d like a Demoman for that. Originally I was thinking our Demo but…”

Demo followed his gaze to the tunnel Jane and Graham must have left from. “…You want me tae come instead?”

“If your willing. And promise not to stab me in the back.”

Demo snorted. “Nah, I dunnae think so. I think we’ve already done too much o’ the robot’s work for them.”

The noise Engie made might have been a laugh if it had been a better time. He looked at the two mercenaries next to him, gloved hand flexing around the PDA. “Welp. That’s it then. We’ve got a plan.”

“Aye,” Demo said softly. “That we do.”

* * *

Graham gently set down Major’s body. He wanted to pretend the other man was just sleeping, but he couldn’t convince even a small part of himself when he knew how light of a sleeper Major was. Up at six every morning, always popping his head up if Graham so much as went to the bathroom in the middle of the night. If could still feel anything at all, he would have told Graham and Mary to be more gentle.

But he couldn’t so he didn’t. And he lay in the central cavern silently, unaware of anything anymore.

This must have been some sort of elevator room, Graham thought dimly. There was a column stretching all the way down to the general direction of the computer room, but it wasn’t of any help; the power was out, elevator stuck open and revealing its caged insides. He and Jane had found this place purely on accident, coming up through a steep tunnel.

Now that they weren’t moving, Graham didn’t know what to do. He wanted to look away, tear his eye off Mary’s empty body, but longing wouldn’t let him. The fact that Major wasn’t in there anymore, gone somewhere that Graham couldn’t follow, wasn’t something he could process. He tried to trick himeslef into thinking respawn might click to life somewhere, whisking away the lifeless body, but the human brain doesn’t work like that. The part of him that could processes something like respawn could work knew that it wouldn’t.

Jane cleared his throat, but didn’t say anything. Graham didn’t look over. He couldn’t put together the effort it would take to interact with the Soldier.

“We…should do something for him,” Jane said lamely, his uncertainly plain as day. Distantly, Graham realized that it was hurting him too, and Graham’s near catatonic state wasn’t helping matters.

“Yeah…alright,” Graham replied after a minute of dry breathing.

Anything to keep doing something. If he kept occupied, maybe he could keep away thoughts of Major. He ignored exactly how well that idea had gone so far.

As he stared motionless, he saw Jane move out of the corner of his eye. The Soldier knelt down by Major’s body, and gently picked up a red stone—a casualty of the robot’s tunneling. He hefted it for a second, weighing it silently, before leaning it against Major’s arm. He picked up another one, and went through the same processes.

It took a whole minute for Graham to realize what he was doing. Slowly, the collection of rocks grew along Mary’s sides as his fellow Soldier gradually buried him.

Graham hesitated for a second, but the knelt by Jane, beginning to help his teammate cover the RED in stones the same color as his uniform. Eventually they ran out of rocks near the tunnels entrance, but there were plenty to go around, and the earth slowly consumed Mary. When they got to his face, eyes still shut and wounds hidden, Graham’s hand began to shake. If they covered him completely, that would be it. It’d be final. No more pretending.

The only thing that gave him the courage to keep going was Jane’s company by his side. Not saying anything, but present enough that Graham was able to put the last few little stones over Major’s eyes.

He stood up, bones creaking after the time. Now his eyes just seemed to gloss over the red mound, like it was no more significant than any stone in the canyon.

Something nudged against his hand. He looked over to see a helmet, graciously being handed to him by Jane. He took it carefully, realizing he should rest it atop the makeshift grave out of respect. But when he went to place it there, he couldn’t make his feet move.

This was all so goddamned _wrong_. This was cosmic joke, that in a desperate attempt to save his own skin he’d ended up killing the person that mattered most. He shouldn’t have to be burying Mary; he shouldn’t have to be doing _any_ of this. All he wanted was to lie down and let the world extract its petty revenge on someone else.

His hands clutched around the grey helmet. He still didn’t move. Instead he began to shake, fresh tears spilling from his eye, brining the helmet up to him like if he kept hold of the heavy hunk of metal there was still _hope_. He gripped it with both hands, pressing it against his forehead and letting tears spill against its sides.

Something brushed against his arm again.

This time, when Jane came closer, he finally closed the distance between them, pulling his teammate into a hug. Graham hardly even processed that this was the closest he’d ever gotten to the Soldier before he pulled Jane, desperate for anything to cling onto.

“It’s nae…it’s nae bloody fair,” he sobbed into Jane’s shoulder, helmet still clutched tightly in his hand.

“What they’ve been doing to us was never goddamn fair.”

There was hurt in Jane’s voice too. And there might have been a catch to it, like a half formed sob, but Graham was too busy burying his mess of a face to notice.

“I cannae…Soldier I cannae…” He shook his head. “Please just…leave me here. I dunnae want to go anywhere. I dunnae deserve tae leave this place.”

“Demo,” Jane told him softly. “You didn’t kill him.”

“I might as well ‘ave.” Graham his fingers in tighter to the back of Jane’s shirt. “I dunnae want tae leave him. I dunnae want tae get out.”

Jane grunted, and gently peeled back his teammate. Graham knew his face must be a mess, and it didn’t help that what little he could see of Jane looked like a broken man. He wiped his nose on his sleeve, trying and failing to compose himself.

“You’re not giving up,” Jane told him.

Graham’s head drooped but he gave no reply.

Jane took a minute to respond. Maybe it was hard for him; he wasn’t good at comfort at the best of times. In fact, if it had been under any other circumstances, Graham would have been surprised Jane had hugged him willingly. But now things had become so undone, nothing seemed to shake him anymore.

“A few days ago,” Jane began, and Graham struggled to look at him, “I told you that I didn’t want to be alive anymore.”

Graham opened his mouth. Then he closed it. He didn’t have anything to say that could do justice to that.

“You told me I had a lot to live for,” Jane continued. “You and Mary. Tavish. The team. And it was hard to hear that, because when I wanted to give up those were just noise in the back of my mind. But the thing is…they’re the truth.”

He pushed Graham further away, so they could stand face to face. Graham blinked, still trying to see the Soldier through the moisture in his eye.

“You were _right_ ,” Jane insisted. “And it’s something I know, and I knew. And I kept going on with my sorry ass because giving up _isn’t what we do_.”

“Soldier I…”

“No buts,” Jane told him. “We can still get out of this mess as long as we’re still kicking. If he were in your place, would you want him sitting here, choosing to give up his life?”

Graham thought he would give anything to be the one lying under a pile of rocks and Major be the one alive, but he knew that’s not what Jane meant. He shook his head.

“You’ve still got me and Tavish,” Jane told him. “And we’re going to get the fuck out of here somehow, and lord help whoever stands in our way. Are you with me, private?”

Graham stood there, staring at the Soldier’s determined grimace. He was going to carry on no matter what. He didn’t give up. And as much as Graham wanted to lie down in these tunnels and never come back out, he still had a match of Sudden Death to win.

“Alright,” he said softly. “For now.”

Jane squeezed his shoulder. It was a start.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Everyone have a nice thanksgiving!


	16. A Friend in Me

The others were talking hurriedly when Jane and Graham returned to the computer room.

There was no sign of the Scout. Jane wondered what Tavish had done with him, and hoped Graham wasn’t wondering the same thing.

Engie looked up and nodded. Jane got the feeling he wanted to greet them more warmly, the atmosphere of the room smothered any pleasantries like a wet blanket.

“We’ve been working on a plan,” Engie said instead. “Three of us have just been hammering out the final details, if you want to join.”

Jane nodded, but then noticed Graham was just staring forlornly at the group. The Soldier told him quietly, “if you want to just sit this one out…”

Graham nodded dully. Jane made sure Graham taken a seat by the half-finished water bottles before joining the rest of the mix-matched group.

Jane liked the plan. It involved killing robots, and not being in this shitty hole any longer. (He firmly clutched his shovel during the debriefing, so locked on to the idea of beating some metallic brains out that he didn’t even notice how tightly he held it.)

“Good work men,” he told them. “Let’s head down to BLU and get killing!”

“You lot can head without me,” Tavish said. “I’ll be joinin’ Engineer’s team, so I’ll just wait for him tae get back.”

The bubble of hope caught in Jane’s throat. He opened his mouth to protest, but was cut off when Engie said, “It might be a while. Assuming we actually get everyone on board, it’s still been a whole day since any of us have gotten some sleep, so we’re probably going to take the night’s rest.”

Tavish nodded. “Alright. See you lads in the mornin’.”

Pyro and Engie started moving, leaving Jane to fumble with the situation. He didn’t want to leave Tavish behind, not when they had fought so hard to find each other again. Even worse, they’d be splitting into two separate teams again, fighting their own battles without the other to watch his back. Jane couldn’t help the feeling of dread that made his hands burn against his shovel.

He pulled Tavish aside while the other BLUs packed up. “Come with the ground team,” he demanded, his voice becoming the drill-sergeant persona he always slipped into when it felt like he was losing a hold on things.

Tavish’s eye softened, already seeing through Jane’s pretenses. “They’re gunna need me down here Jane,” he reminded the Soldier softly.

“Fuck that.” Jane ground his teeth together. “Going into those tunnels is a fucking suicide mission.”

“And fightin’ a horde o’ robots is any better?” Tavish asked, voice rising as his temper flared. “It’s nae like _I’m_ happy havin’ you go up there.”

Jane growled, tightening his hand on Tavish’s shoulder. “Well at LEAST if we’re together we can…” _Watch each other’s backs_ , Jane finished in his head, but knew it would sound pathetic if he said it aloud.

Tavish caught on anyway, and his expression softened. “Jane. This is somethin’ that needs tae be done.”

“But not by you,” Jane said, and couldn’t keep the desperation out of his voice.

A moment of silence boiled between the two of them. Jane knew it was unfair to ask Tavish to back down, but he had to. He couldn’t let the Demoman out of his sight, not when every minute together might be their last…

Not when _this_ minute might their last.

“Janey,” Tavish began, his mouth coming out of its hard line. “I’m goin’ tae go down there, and I’m goin’ tae smash that transmitter like it’s the worst piece of fruitcake I’ve ever eaten. And when you see a bunch o’ bots twitchin’ as their circuits short, you’re goin’ tae know I did my job.” He reached out, taking Jane’s hands in his own. “And then you do yours.”

Jane struggled. This couldn’t be it. This couldn’t be the last time he saw Tavish. He let out a breath he hadn’t known he’d been holding.

“Okay,” he relented, shoulders drooping under the defeat. “But…” He hesitated, then slid his hand up until he reach the back of Tavish’s neck. He pulled their heads together, pressing the metal brim of his helmet against the soft yielding of Tavish’s beanie. He let out a shuddering breath. “On one condition. If it comes down to it, if you EVER need to decide between yourself and the mission, you choose yourself. Promise me.”

Tavish leaned in, his careful breath mixing with Jane’s own. “I promise,” he said.

Jane wasn’t sure if he believed him.

* * *

It felt like years since Jane had last seen BLU base instead of just yesterday. Returning proved to be no problem, a dozen blue sentries beeping merrily at them instead of jumping to defense mode. Even in the dark, Sniper must have spotted their approach, because when the mercenaries pushed open the door of the base the last half of their team was already waiting for them.

“Well,” Spy said, the only member of the base not yet in some form of nightwear, “you four certainly look like you have a story to tell.”

The others looked on in silent agreement. Engie cleared his throat and stepped forward, but Jane held out his hand. This was one hit he knew he could take.

“Alright ladies,” he began, puffing up his chest and looking around at his unbroken team. It had been a long year trying to remember where he fit in with them, relearning how to be a good Soldier and a good teammate. They were not quite friends and yet somehow more than friends; and as much as he still clung to the memories of two very important REDs, he was forever grateful he still had these men by his side. “It all started when someone who shall not be named got his sorry ass kidnapped by RED.”

Jane told the whole thing there in front of a bunch of trained killers who were still in their slippers. He left out as much as he could about RED, only making vague references to ‘RED prisoners’, if only for Graham’s sake. It was only when he described the first conversation with Bidwell the he dove into all the juicy details. His story finished with an outline the robot’s weakness, and how they were going to beat their sorry asses into a pulp.

“Those hunks of junk made a mistake,” Jane told the team plainly. “They ditched their carriers in order to sneak around like a bunch of pansies, and now they’re going to pay like the cowardly, liver-eating maggots they are. Who’s with me?”

There was a brief look between those members who had been left behind, a shared breath held as they wondered about the plan that might be their only hope. It seemed to stretch forever until Sniper said, “eh, alright. Guess I’m in.”

“Da. Heavy is too.”

Medic sniffed. “Hm. Better than sitting in base getting cabin fever for the third day in a row.”

“The plan is far from foolproof,” Spy said with a frown. “However, I am unable to come up with a better one. Count me at your disposal.”

“Wait wait!” Scout interrupted. “Don’t make me the last one to say it. I’ll look like a wuss!” He looked Jane directly in the eye and smacked his fist into an open palm. “I’m in!”

Jane almost felt the twitch of a smile at his lips, but he suppressed it. Instead, he looked over his shoulder and Pyro and Engie, with Graham trailing a bit further behind. There was some semblance of morale now. Something he hadn’t felt when he’d left Tavish standing at the entrance to the tunnel. Now that his team surrounded him, he thought they actually might win.

“That’s what I fucking thought,” he told them. “Now! To your bunks men! We attack at dawn.”

* * *

Graham gently pulled on some socks for the first time in ages. A quick blast from the medigun had fixed his feet and the cut on his face, but he still felt the ghosts of the marks like he was haunted by particularly tight tap-shoes.

Back at RED base, he had taken off his shoes so he could better MacGyver his way to freedom, but the small flame he’d managed to make out of a fallen battery had caused more disaster than he could ever have imagined. If he had just stayed and waited for help instead of panicking, Mary would still be…

No, he couldn’t go down that road. There were no what-ifs, just living with what he had done.

He curled his toes in the soft fabric.

Despite being full of food, Graham didn’t feel like sleeping. It was his first good meal in a long while, the rest of the supplies left with Tavish, and Graham realized suddenly he hadn’t said goodbye to the man. He’d taken it for granted that they’d see each other again; or, more likely, hadn’t been thinking about it at all. The realization only deepened Graham’s guilt.

It might have made him stare at the wall all night if Heavy hadn’t walked into his room.

“Demoman has had difficult day, it seems,” the Russian said as he made his way to the bed. Graham barely had time to register his presence before Heavy was sitting down beside him, making the springs creak. “Is OK. We kill all bots tomorrow. Make things right.”

Graham couldn’t even begin to tell Heavy how wrong he was, so he just sat there in silence.

Heavy raised his eyebrows slightly. “Unless is something else hurting Demoman?”

Graham wrung his hands together. He tried a few times to speak before settling on, “there’s already a few dead REDs. We’re not gettin’ out o’ this unscathed.”

Heavy grunted. No doubt he was trying to see whatever Graham was hiding. “Yes. Is true. But team is still strong, and now together.”

“Aye. I guess.” Graham sighed. There was no way to explain it to anyone. Not even Jane understood how every death in this stupid arena had been because of him. “It’s just…what was the bloody point?” he demanded. “What do a bunch of robots have tae gain by lockin’ us in here and tellin’ us to battle tae the death? Why go through all the trouble of forgin’ the Administrator’s voice when they could’ve just as easily come and blown our brains out?”

Heavy didn’t have an answer to that.

“It’s all just so…” Graham finished, “…meanin’less.”

Placing a large hand on Graham’s back, Heavy said, “yes. Also true. But that is what life is, da? People are killed without sense or reason. Not because they are weak or because they are bad. But because they _are_.”

Graham could hear him struggle for a moment, probably trying to phrase what he wanted to say into English, and the Demo waited patiently.

“Hard to make sense of things,” Heavy said eventually. “Too hard. But we still make choices, even without knowing all.”

The socks were the same color white as the wall. Blank and expressionless. But Heavy’s hand on his shoulder was warm, and it grounded Graham back in reality.

“…Aye,” was all he could say.

It wasn’t in any way comforting. But it was true, so that was something at least. After a while Heavy realized that he wouldn’t get any further conversation out the Demoman, and took his leave.

When he was gone, Graham felt his head suddenly become very light. He found he was tired, surprising when only a moment ago he felt like he’d never be able to close his eye again. But now he could put his head to pillow and be out within miniutes. There was a battle tomorrow, after all.


	17. The Last Battle

“Spy?”

“Yes laborer?”

“Mind if I talk to you for a minute?”

Graham heard the conversation over breakfast, and, for once, he felt the urge to listen, to be aware of his surroundings. Quietly, he heard Engie and Spy’s discussion unfold.

“I’m going to need someone watching my back in the tunnels,” Engie began. “I was hoping you could help, since you’ve got at least a little mechanical knowhow.”

Sappers more like, but Graham didn’t interrupt.

Spy thoughtfully poked his eggs. “I understand your need for a second, but wouldn’t asking Demoman be more appropriate? His expertise is blowing up pesky machines.”

“I know but…” Engie scratched the back of his neck. “He’s been through a lot lately. I want someone who’s up to the task.”

With dismay, it clicked in the back of Graham’s mind. _That’s_ why Tavish had stayed behind, because the Engineer had wanted a Demoman with him. He thought Graham couldn’t do it. And, fuck, maybe he was right—but Graham knew what his duty was and where he’d be the most effective. He pushed himself away from the table.

Engie and Spy looked over as the sound of his clattering silverware.

“I’ll do it,” he told them, approaching with a stumble. One, for once, that wasn’t brought on by a hangover since he hadn’t touched the bottle in days.

“Oh. I didn’t know you were listening son,” Engie said sheepishly.

“I’ll do it,” Graham repeated in lieu of responding. “I’ll join team A.”

Engie hesitated, looking him up and down in his exhausted state. Graham didn’t care. He’d told Jane that he’d keep trying, and this was exactly where he was supposed to be.

“Well,” Spy said. “That settles it then. Demo can take my place by your side, and I will stay with team B during the battle.”

Graham’s stomach seemed to coil when he watched Engie give in. They weren’t giving up. Not yet. As long as there was still something to do, he would hold on to that rope while the steadily rising river threatened to go over his head.

* * *

Tavish stood at the grave. A hand gently touched the helmet that had been left on the pile of rocks like a marker, caressing the cool grey metal that hadn’t stopped the final blow.

Jane’s instructions had lead Tavish here—a careful aside in case he wanted to…pay his respects. At the time Tavish couldn’t imagine not coming to see Mary one more time, but that was before he realized how much this would fucking hurt.

The RED Soldier had been his only friend for years, and in that half-decade of loneliness where he’d pushed everyone else away, but Mary had never given up on him. He’d forced that bare minimum of human contact like his life depended on it.

Tavish had never told him how much it meant.

The cool of the tunnel had kept the body from developing an odor, but the air still hung with death that Tavish could feel in his lungs. Mary deserved more than this. More than having his still-happy life cut so abruptly short with a teamkill and a rockpile on the ground. Blinking away the tear in his eye, Tavish thought about the justice he’d failed to deliver. He knew Mary wouldn’t have wanted Scout dead anyway, but that didn’t ease any of the guilt on the blade of his sword.

Tomorrow. Tomorrow he’d find the ones who’d started this whole mess, and he’d bloody make them pay.

* * *

Jane didn’t look happy. It was hard to tell with the helmet covering his face, but when he gazed over his two teammates about to depart, a brief twitched of sadness crossed his face.

“Are you sure about this private?” he asked, voice heavy with worry.

“I’m sure,” Graham told him.

The rest of the team was cluttered around the lift, armed to the teeth and ready to ride up to the start of the battle. It wouldn’t begin until the robots went down, but Jane had already given three rousing speeches before breakfast.

Jane hesitated. Then he reached out an awkward hand that landed on Graham’s shoulder. “I…don’t get dead,” was what he managed to eke out.

Graham nodded. This was the Soldier’s only version of sentimentality, but Graham didn’t have anything in him to help his friend. For that he was sorry. Nothing he said could change the fact that things might be about to go horribly, horribly wrong.

“I won’t.” Graham paused. Maybe there was one thing. “I’ll look for out for him Soldier. On my life.”

Jane opened his mouth, but no sound came out. He swallowed thickly, and gave one last nod that bobbled his steel-grey helmet.

And that was the truth; Graham was going to protect the last shreds of his family with whatever strength he had left. He stepped back from Jane and gave a small salute. Something that finally made the Soldier crack a wry smile.

* * *

Tavish had been up since dawn, polishing off the last old cheese as a half-hearted breakfast. The plan better work, otherwise he might just have to beg for succor at BLU base after all, lest he wanted to spend time foraging in the underside of the Administrator’s base. But then again, if the plan _didn’t_ work, there might not be a BLU base to go back to, since he didn’t think the robots would take kindly to their attempted escape. So, when he finally caught a glimpse of the Engineer making his way up the slope of the canyon, he finally rolled himself out of his bored stupor. Taking a moment to pop his neck, he noticed Engie wasn’t alone.

“What are you doin’ here lad?” he asked Graham, the BLU Demoman trailing behind Engie with a far off look in his eye. He didn’t look much better, but the fact that he was here at all said something.

“I’m joinin’ the crew,” Graham said firmly. Then he swung the Loch-n-load off his back and pushed it into Tavish’s hands. “And I brought you this.”

“Shouldnae you be fightin’ with your team? They’re goin’ tae need all the help they can get.”

“Engie thinks we needed three men for the job,” Graham explained. “He tried to recruit Spy this mornin’.”

Tavish shot a look over at Engie, but the hardhat just gave him a shrug. Vaguely, he wondered if the Engineer didn’t trust him, but then remembered the answer to that question was already pretty obvious.

“Well,” Tavish faltered. “I suppose if that what the lead thinks is best…”

Once Graham had made sure Tavish was properly equipped, they turned back toward the underground, finding their way to the screen room and branching off from there. Tavish glanced over at Graham every now and again as they walked; he was glad his friend was speaking full sentences again but, and that he seemed to have joined the underground venture on his own initiative. Still, there wasn’t any chance he’d recovered. Tavish knew that the man was only a few mortal snags away from a complete breakdown, one that was only staved off while he had the mission gleaming in his eye.

“How you feelin’ lad?” Tavish asked him softly after Engie’s little PDA had beeped them past their first fork in the road.

Graham’s eye softened, but didn’t look directly at him. “Bad. Only thing that’s keepin’ me goin’ is the hope o’ gettin’ out o’ here.”

Well. Better than nothing. Tavish placed a hand on Graham’s shoulder.

They walked in silence, the slope of the tunnel taking them deeper into the earth. Tavish wondered how the hell the signal was getting out through this deep of rock, but then remembered that whoever had done this had reprogrammed an army of killer robots had to be one hell of a genius. No doubt they could figure out the logistics of an underground transmission.

His thoughts were interrupted but a sound from Graham, his words so quiet Tavish almost missed them. “I’m sorry. For what I did to your team.”

Tavish let out a breath, air pushing through his lungs like a series of broken pipes. “I know lad. I know you dinnae want any o’ this.”

Graham just nodded. Tavish hadn’t wanted to say it was okay, because it wasn’t, but he didn’t have it in him to revile the BLU after he’d lost so much.

When there wasn’t any more attempt at conversation from Graham, Tavish said, “I…er…visited him this mornin’.”

Graham’s breath caught in his throat. He closes his eye, and slowly exhaled. “Good. That’s…good.”

Tavish nodded. But there was something else on Graham’s mind, one that filled the air as the two trailed behind Engie’s inattentive leadership. It coated the walls with awkward silence.

“What did you do with the Scout?” he finally blurted, and Tavish flinched at the words. “Soldier said you left with him…”

Not replying at first, Tavish chose to look at the ground. But that accusing eye kept staring, so he had to reply, “he’s out of our hair. You dunnae need tae worry about him anymore.”

“You let him go.” Graham didn’t even try to hide the edge in his voice.

“Graham. Laddie. You cannae let that get you.” Tavish turned so Graham wasn’t drifting in his blind spot.

The glint of vengeance didn’t leave Graham’s eye.

“You killin’ him won’t bring Mary back,” Tavish said plainly. “Anymore than him killin’ you would bring Engie back.”

That seemed to register in Graham’s mind, and he struggled for a moment with the knowledge that all things had ended in one cosmic accident. Fate had decided to fuck them, and killing another RED wouldn’t make it better. The anger was gone, and Tavish almost wished he hadn’t chased it away, if only because the thought of revenge had momentarily made Graham look alive again.

But it was better in the long run to let him go. If they lived long enough to reap those rewards.

“Fellas,” Engie said suddenly. “Sounds like we’re getting close.”

Sure enough, the PDA’s methodic beeping had increased to a steady bip every two seconds. They’d been searching for at least an hour, the floodlights sporadically scattered in the tunnels their only sign of civilization. Even as Engie tucked the PDA in his back pocket, a gentle warning could be heard, alerting them just how near to their destination they were.

Less than a hundred feet later, Engie froze. “Looks like we’ve got company.” He swung his shotgun from behind his back, the two Demomen following suit. Tavish gripped the barrel of the Loch-n-load—not his own, but familiar enough to give himself some sense of security.

Ahead, there were robots.

Tavish’s imagination hadn’t done them justice. Sure he knew that the robots were based off him and his teammates, but that didn’t make the monocular monstrosity that turned to them any less unsettling. One giant green light bulb blinked in the center of its forehead, an unsettling imitation of something vaguely human. It had no mouth, but when it turned to the three humans, something in its unearthly scream out, “ _H A V E A T ‘E M L A D S_.”

Two more of the demobots whipped their heads around, charging after their fellow with metallic screams.

Engie blasted the first one in the chest, the force of his shots only getting more powerful as the distance closed. The demobot came to a shuddering halt, it’s body falling to cogs and dollar bills as its inertia died. Tavish was already pressing on Engie’s left, using the floodlight’s generator as makeshift cover while he lobed a few bombs over. As Engie began to reload, Graham rushed forward, the BLU’s Eyelander sliding from its sheath, meeting the demobot’s own blade with a TWANG that shook the whole tunnel.

Tavish didn’t even hear the sharp fizzle behind him. What he did hear was Engie’s sharp cry of, “watch it!” before he turned and caught sight of the hardhat moving in front of the knife.

“ _A h a h h ha_ ,” the spybot laughed, swinging its blade downward. But Engie was already there, catching the knife in his forearm instead of the wide expanse of Tavish’s back.

“GAH,” he gasped as the knife sunk deep. But his shotgun was still between him and the robots, and before the spybot could even pull out he was kicking it down and landing several double taps into its head. “Goddamned spies,” he gasped out.

Tavish opened his mouth, to give a bit of thanks maybe, but Graham’s fight pulled his attention back. The BLU was locked in combat with the remaining two demobots, meeting them swing for swing, parrying each blade with an animalistic ferocity. Tavish couldn’t see anyway to throw more pills in, not without hurting Graham, and began to reach for his own sword. Before he could draw, Graham locked blades with one of the robots, back turned toward the other. As Tavish’s eye widened with dread, Graham didn’t even hesitate. He disengaged with the first robot effortlessly, dodging out of the way to let the second robot attack its companion.

The two robots screeched, a horrible noise that was cut short as Graham rammed the Eyelander through them both.

“Bloody hell,” Tavish said, pulling himself to his feet by the generator. “You alright there lad?”

Graham looked over at him, the Eyelander’s flame already beginning to die in his eye. A similar effect was happening to the robot, whose green lights gently faded until they were just a pair of dull emeralds sunk into metal faces. Graham nodded.

“’M fine.”

Tavish thought he was lying, but he also had to check on the Engineer. Engie was generally holding his arm, the butterfly knife all the way through the muscle.

“What about you?” Tavish asked him. “That looks…bad.”

Engie shrugged. “I’ll live. Assuming there ain’t much more of these things.”

“Oh.” Tavish shuffled. “Er, thanks for savin’ my life, I suppose.”

“You’re a lot harder to fix than me,” Engie reminded him. “All we gotta do is get where I can pull a little scrap for a dispenser, and I’ll be up and running in no time.”

“…Right.” It didn’t make Tavish feel any better, and he suppressed a wave of guilt at his earlier mistrust of Engineer.

Tavish spared a glance at Graham. The man was still staring down at the demobots, his face unreadable and the green flame gone. As they passed, Tavish pressed a hand into his back, reminding him they still had more demons to fight.

* * *

They reached the innermost confines of the robots lair without further injury. Tavish didn’t like these small quarters, but it did make a nice funnel for his bombs as long as their enemies stayed in front of them. There was another close call when a scoutbot almost blasted Engie from behind, but Graham sliced off its head before it could get its shot off.

By the time they reached the signal, Engie’s pocket was practically screaming, and he had to turn the PDA off.

The room was carved completely out, no illusions that this was part of the Administrator’s original complex. Piles of technology tumbled around it, lounging on shelves and clustering in boxes. What seemed like hundreds of wires webbed the room, leaving it a spider’s nest of evil looking cables.

“If you still want to do some flips through the deadly lasers,” Engie told Tavish, “now’s your chance.”

“So where’s the transmitter?” Graham asked, squinting around the room where a creepy olive glow came from the largest of the machines.

“This is _all_ the transmitter,” Engie said, spreading his arms around the room. “One damn supercomputer. And we’ve got to blow it to smithereens.”

“Well,” Tavish said. “That’s good. We’re good at that.”

Engie snorted, and began kneeling down around each of the interconnected systems. Favoring the Gunslinger heavily, he poked and prodded, and finally stood five minutes later.

“Alright fellas. No more beating around the bush. Demo, you go over to that one and start fixing a compact explosive into its motherboard. RED, you’re over there. I set up mine, we blow all three at once, and the whole system comes down.”

Tavish and Graham shared a look, then nodded firmly at Engie at the same time.

It was a good plan. Tavish was glad it didn’t involve causing anymore cave-ins than he’d already experienced this week. Before long he was jimmying open one of the computers, re-constructing one of his pills to be a small acid bomb that would go off after some intense heat. (Something that wasn’t hard to find in the green glow of the supercomputer.) He wondered vaguely if their presence here was setting off some sort of alarm in the secret base of whoever this evil mastermind was, but it didn’t matter. Whoever they were, they were far away and unable to stop this fuck train.

It took a half an hour, but the three of them finished, retreating towards the way they’d come.

“Who wants to do the honors?” Engie asked, holding up a detonator.

Graham held out his hand immediately, and took the grey switch. Then he looked between the three of them, saying a humorless, “ _kaboom_.”

* * *

“They’re doing something alright!” Sniper shouted from where he’d clambered onto the top of some rocks. He’d finally gotten a visual on the robots, a whole platoon of them, mulling around not far from where they’d shot Scout.

Soldier stepped higher on the rocks, just able to see the robots with his naked eye. The bastards had been hard to find, but once BLU had located them, there was nothing to do but wait for the signal.

“Does it look like they’re turning off?” Soldier demanded. Sniper didn’t say anything. “Sniper, does it look like-”

“I heard you! I’m fucking looking!”

Soldier ground his teeth. Patience wasn’t in his very short list of positive attributes, but he was goddamned trying. Finally, Sniper pulled his face from the scope and looked how the rocks.

“They’re shorting out,” he told the BLUs definitively.

A mummer went through the team. This was it, their signal. Soldier puffed out his chest, getting his threads of confidence together.

“Men!” he bellowed from his position below the Sniper but above BLU team. “Mercenaries! Soldiers! To day is not going to be like any battle you’ve fought in the past six years. Today, our lives our on the line, and we’re not getting them back if we lose them along the way. We don’t know who’s to blame for that, but we do know that there are a lot of robots out there who deserve boots up their asses. And bad news for them, because BLU is ready to go all in for one last battle!”

He punched his fist into the air, and his teammates looked on at him. It might have been a nice moment had Scout not cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted, “speech! Speech! Speech!”

“Scout! If we get out this alive I am going to strangle you!”

Scout laughed, and Soldier heard Sniper’s distinctive chuckle behind him. The sound of laughter and the rolling eyes of his teammates set a fire in Soldier’s stomach.

It gave him the strength to lift his shovel and yell, “CHARGE!”


	18. Wear It Home, It'll Look Like a Dress

“GIVE ‘EM HELL BOYS!” Soldier yelled at the top of his lungs. He’d been doing a lot of yelling at the top of his lungs for the past half an hour, but honestly who else was going to give the team moral?

He landed on a sniperbot’s head, crushing it underfoot as he descended from his beautiful arc of a rocket jump. The slaughter might have been gorgeous. A different Jane, many years ago would laughed at the piles of once-robots that had been here to steal American jobs, but now, to him, it was just war.

Pyro stood against a horde of their robotic counterparts, their suit making them the most protected against the enemy flamethrowers. The robots weren’t smart, Bidwell had been right about that much. But BLU was just nine—no, _seven_ —men, and it was starting to look like the robots were in the _thousands_. Every time they killed a wave, more swarmed from three directions, producing one smoky battle on the top of canyon. Soldier didn’t fight with the screams of glee and gusto he once had: he fought with the fury of a dead man. The rage of someone who knew that no matter if he won or lost, this was his last battle.

“Try to be a bit more aware of your surroundings,” a voice behind him called. Soldier looked over his shoulder to see Spy, knife implanted in a soldierbot that had been sneaking up on him.

“Don’t tell me what to do, crouton,” Soldier informed him.

Spy didn’t even deign him with an eyeroll. “Stop by Medic soon, lest you want that becoming a problem.” He indicated the gash in Soldier’s jacket where a demobot had grazed him.

Soldier had found it easy to ignore the pain until Spy pointed it out. “It’s just a scratch,” he said with a grimace.

“Soldier.”

“I’m fine cheese pants. Medic has more important things to deal with at the moment.” With that he launched himself under his feet, disappearing from the Spy’s nagging.

It was true after all. With no dispenser and no medkits, Medic was their single source of healing in a battle that seemed to stretch on forever. Currently, the doctor’s beam was focused firmly on Heavy, the duo mowing down wave after wave or robots from their position on the rocks. Heavy soaked up the bullets like a sponge, and Medic got his Über nearly every ten minutes. Haunting their high-ground position like a particularly stabby ghost, Spy spent most of his time dispatching robots that managed to get up the hill. If the bots had any semblance of strategy they might have targeted BLU’s only healer, but even without, some stragglers got too close for comfort.

Soldier landed in a battalion of unsuspecting scoutbots. They never stood a chance, most turning to mettle and green paper before they even knew he was there. The real Scout darted not to far away, blasting one of the one-wheeled medicbots in the back.

That just left one man unaccounted for but, with a sinking feeling, Soldier realized he hadn’t seen the Sniper in a while. He glanced up to where he’d been perched, but saw no barrel of a rifle poking through the bushes.

“Dammit,” he said, and launched himself away.

He landed on the slightly sheltered outcropping with a _crack_ of his knees, drawing his shotgun in the close quarters. He needn’t have bothered. The fight was over, a spybot down and sporting Bushwacka-shaped hole in its chest.

But Sniper wasn’t faring much better. Soldier couldn’t tell where he was bleeding from, but it looked to be a lot of places. “Bloody spies,” he grunted to his grimacing company.

“You can say that again private.” Soldier took a knee beside him, looking him over a realizing he’d have to move fast. “Alright camper, hold on to me while we get you to Medic.”

Sniper’s brows furrowed behind his glasses. “If you try to bloody _bridal-style carry me_ while you do your _bloody_ rocket jump I will rip out your teeth-”

“Too late! Already in progress.” Soldier cut off Sniper’s threats with one arm, yanking to his side while he prepped his rocket launcher.

“You fucking-”

The insult turned into a scream as they flew through the air, crossing the plains of battle as the morning sun beat down. Robots fell underneath them as they crossed over Heavy’s line of fire, the two drawing closer to their destination with every bound of Soldier’s legs. Finally he touched down, depositing the Sniper in front of Medic as quickly as he could.

“Got another one for you sweetheart,” he said.

“ _Verdammt, kein anderer_ ,” Medic growled, but was on Sniper instantly.

“I’d go back to battle, but I need to get Sheila here back to his nest once you’re all done,” Soldier snorted.

“No you do not!” Sniper shouted. “I’d rather walk than go through that again you bloody fruit-”

“Would both of you please shut up?” Medic complained. “I already have a headache from Heavy’s screaming.”

“Is good for morale Doktor!” Heavy yelled, not even looking behind. Then he called the robots babies, and Soldier couldn’t suppress a snort of fondness.

They were doing it. They couldn’t do it indefinitely, but they were doing it. If the A team came back from their mission soon, there was no way they could lose.

* * *

Graham kicked a loose tower case, one of the hundred that had been shaken free in the blast. The room was a jumble of scrap, but the structure itself hadn’t been touched, leaving them free reign in the former supercomputer.

Tavish helped Engie sort through the junk for what dispenser parts he needed. The RED had been sticking close to the Engineer, and Graham guessed he felt some sort of debt after the hardhat had saved his life. It was just as well, and Engie didn’t seem to mind when he was only working at half capacity.

That left Graham alone to his thoughts.

He surveyed the room, wondering how the battle up top was going. It would take them another few hours to get out of here, even without more bots to battle on their way out. Graham wondered if there would be any robots left once they got up.

Or if they’d underestimated their enemy and would find only charred remains of what used to be BLU.

Graham tried to push the macabre thought away, but it clung to him like the smell of dead fish the time Major had wanted to try making sushi together. And then that memory hurt him to, and he tried not thinking all together.

Instead, he surveyed the cavern. A multitude of tunnels converged on the north side of the room, a direction Graham only knew because apparently a compass was an essential component of the dispenser. That was the direction they’d come from, the merging of canals reminding him of the screen room they’d spent so much time in yesterday. It had been a hub for the tunnel builders, much like this one.

The only difference was they merged from one direction instead of all around. It caught Graham as strange, and when he turned, he noticed there was one more tunnel, coming from the north end of the room. Despite the oppressing hopelessness that had been killing him since yesterday, he felt his first twinge of curiosity that wasn’t brought on by hopeless disillusionment.

He left Tavish and Engie, heading off down the lone tunnel.

It seemed to go on for a while. When’d he started, he thought he could check and then head back, but it wasn’t just some auxiliary offshoot of the main room. Worse, no one had even bothered to set up any lights in this one. He didn’t sense any difference otherwise. Didn’t feel any disparity as he walked that one lonely tunnel.

Didn’t realize what was to terribly, terribly wrong until he stepped into the auxiliary room.

Because it wasn’t the supercomputer that all the tunnels led to. It was this.

A thousand screens blared a thousand images. It was like the Administrator’s control center, only instead of being smashed to darkness and shards of glass, this one glowed with information, all cameras rewired to here. Some were dark, where they had once led to RED base, others spanned over the silent battlefield that had no more people to fight for it. A handful, sitting at the bottom right, showed the path from BLU base to the cars. Those were the only ones that exhibited life, showing a deadly battle as it raged across the edges of the map.

And, right in the center of the room, was a tall leather chair. It faced away from him, and Graham had never been more certain in his life that it was _not_ empty.

“What in god’s name…” he whispered.

The Administrator’s voice spoke. “BLU Demoman. I suggest you leave immediately. Otherwise the consequences shall be…fatal.” With a light tap of a shoe against the stone floor, the chair turned.

Graham had seen the Administrator enough time through the grayscale screens of her messengers to recognize her on sight. He had also seen her enough to know that thing in front of him was absolutely _not_ the Administrator. Its body was one large triangle, an awkward parody of the Admin’s sharp power suit, and its face had no nose or mouth. The robot was distinctly featureless, radiating the same style that all the other metallic copies contained.

“Go now,” it said with a wave of its hand when Graham still hadn’t moved. “We are busy with things you have no hope of fighting, so it’s in your best interests just to go die somewhere else. I assure you it will be less painful.” The Administrator sounded exactly like she always did; layered through the intercom system. It was nothing like how she would if she stood in this room. A recording of a recording.

“I dunnae think I should leave-” Graham began, but cut himself off when every screen in the room flashed at once.

They each dropped their respective images, changing to colored pixels that from up-close made no discernable sense. But Graham could see it from where he was. The screen room had changed to display one large image of a human face.

“ETA one hour,” the human said, obviously speaking to the robot in the chair. “It’d be less time but I was-”

It cut off sharply, noticing something behind the tall chair.

“What is _he_ doing here??”

The human was a little girl. No more than eleven, her face showing signs over former roundness, but now hallowed out around her hazel eyes. Her hair was greasy and black, tied behind her with a filthy green ribbon.

Graham’s mouth hung open.

“I assure you I haven’t the slightest,” the robot Administrator said. “Though if you were to ask me how I think he found this place, I would tell you he’s most likely the cause of our recent power outage.”

The giant face on the screen changed. There was something ferocious about two-dozen screen bearing down at you with unbridled disappointment, regardless if it’s a child’s anger or not.

But after it ceased, and the glare on her face was replaced with a snide smirk. “Well good then. Now that he’s here, he can learn what exactly happens when he doesn’t play by the rules.”

“Lassie,” Graham said, finding his voice for the first time, “I dunnae know what you’re doin’ up in those computers, but can I just ask what the hell is going on?”

She grinned, as though glad Graham had asked. Her eyes sparkled as she looked at him and said, “justice.”

He didn’t know what that could possibly mean. “Look, whatever’s happenin’ you shouldn’t be-”

“I can physically remove him if you wish,” the robot cut him off. “He is irritating to be around.”

The girl’s smile widened. “Oh, I don’t think it matters. The carriers are almost there anyway. And when they arrive, we won’t have to worry about any of _her_ people any more.”

 “Carriers?” Graham managed to stammer. There was something bad about that, something to awful for his mind to wrap around at the moment with so much information coming at once-

“Yes, carriers.” She smiled. “The mobile commander centers. My own invention, improving on what was left to me. You have to admit it makes them quite more efficient. Originally I had intended to leave them behind because I thought I could make a game of it.” She looked down at Graham, her face a wash of airy disappointment. “This whole thing would have been more fun if you had all just fought each other from the beginning.”

Graham’s mind seemed to be moving in slow motion. “Lassie, I-”

“Stop calling me Lassie,” she demanded, her tiny face twisted in disgust.. “I’m not a stupid dog. My name is Olivia Mann!”

“…Olivia…?”

“And you’re going to remember that,” she finished. “For as long as you live, anyway.”

Graham’s mouth just hung open. _This whole thing would have been more fun if you had all just fought each other from the beginning._ This couldn’t be…

“Olivia,” he began, knowing that, somehow, this little girl was the root of everything. “Whatever it is you want from, us we dunnae have it. We just want tae get out.”

“Well too bad,” Olivia said. Here eyes were glinting, like she had all the cards and she knew it too. “The carriers will arrive in less than an hour. When they do, they’ll starts transmitting my program again, smashing all of your stupid faces. I hope you like money bullets mister, because you’re all going to be eating a lot of them.”

Graham’s mind broke as it finally sank in. BLU was currently engaged with hundreds, maybe thousands of robots who were fighting like mindless drones. If they suddenly regained their former intelligence…they wouldn’t just kill his friends. They would tear them to shreds.

“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have other projects I need to work on.” Olivia moved, like she was reaching to turn off the communication.

Graham’s eye widened. “Wait!” he screamed through the desperation in his mind.

She looked over at him, her expression verging on bored.

“W-why?” was all he could manage. “Why did you do all o’ this?”

“I told you,” she said lazily. “Justice.”

“For what?” he asked, taking a step towards the screens. “What did we do tae you? The only people we’ve ever hurt is each other.”

“ _For what_?” A child’s anger flashed across her face, wild and indignant. “ _Don’t_ play dumb with me. You _helped_ that awful woman. You’re her people and I’m going to kill you just like I killed her.”

“Her?” Graham blinked. “The Administrator?”

“NO!” Olivia yelled. Real anger was there, not the taunting disdain from before. “Not her! The other one! The one with the glasses. _The one who killed my daddy_.”

Graham’s eye widened, the pieces finally coming together. Bidwell had never mentioned Grey Mann had a daughter. Maybe he didn’t know, or the fact was inconsequential to Mann Co.. Either way, Miss Pauling had killed someone’s father, and it sounded like she had paid dearly for it.

“Olivia,” he said, trying to soften his voice. “I’m so sorry for what happened.”

“No you’re not,” Olivia said. “Not yet.” She moved to turn off the channel again.

“Olivia wait,” he pleaded. He had to stop her. Had to. Everything was on the line; Soldier, BLU team, his own life… “We’re nae the ones who did that to your Da.”

“You worked for her,” Olivia pouted.

“Only by contract,” he explained. “On threats o’ death if we left. We served her, but we dinnae have any love for her. Killin’ us…it won’t do anythin’.”

“It’ll make me feel better,” she shrugged.

“No it won’t.”

She looked down at him, unamused, but at least she was listening.

“I know it hurts,” he began. “To lose someone you love. It feels like the whole world it to blame, and nothing makes it go away. I lost someone close tae me too, nae too long ago. And I wanted revenge so bloody badly but, my friend told me the truth, and it’s this: it won’t bring him back.”

_Please god let her listen. Please for the love of god…_

 Olivia stared at him in silence. He didn’t know what was going on inside her head, behind that face that somehow was cruel in only the way a child can be. But if could just stir something inside her…

She shrugged. “Maybe not. But it sure will be fun to watch.” She smiled, and the screens went dark.

Graham fell to his knees, the horror widening before him and about to swallow him whole. That couldn’t be it. That couldn’t be how this ended with a click and a smile-

Olivia appeared again, light blaring through the room again. Graham snapped up his head in hope.

“Oh, and Mummy?” she said. The robot lifted its head. “Kill him for me. He’s gotten really annoying.”

And then she was gone again, leaving Graham alone with Admin robot as it stood from its chair.

“Target found. Neutralization process imminent.”

In a move faster than he thought possible, the robot was in front of him, slamming into his chest and sending him hurtling backwards into the wall. Miraculously, he managed to get to his feet, but the robot was advancing on him already.

His hand flew to his non-existent sticky-launcher. It was gone, left behind along with his allies. Instead he drew the Eyelander, only barely meeting the robot’s next attack in time. He kited away from the wall, meeting a metal arm with a TWANG that shuddered his teeth.

The next time he wasn’t so lucky. He launched his blade at the bot, and it simply reach up and caught it like he was swinging a piñata stick. It held the sword in place, whatever metal that made its hands at least twice as resistant as the bots that had guarded the underground. To Graham’s horror, it moved its wrist, slowly bending the sword in half.

The Eyelander screamed, in as much pain as a haunted sword could be. Before his eye, its tip was bent back to face him, as easily as a pipe cleaner.

The robot wrenched his sword from his hands and tossed it aside.

Then it was on him, too fast to dodge, grabbing him by the throat and holding him in the air. He clawed at its vice-like fingers, metal digging into his neck as the death grip began to choke the life from him. His brain was already starting to fog, and he couldn’t even concentrate on the fact that _the carriers are coming oh god they’re all going to die I have to leave I have to warn them I have to leave-_

Graham was dying. He realized that suddenly, being held by the Administrator’s lookalike while it stared into him with bright green eyes. And maybe some part of him was okay with that. But the rest, suddenly and astonishingly, was very much not. He couldn’t die. Not when his team needed him. And her certainly wasn’t going out like _this_.

He kicked out, boot doing nothing to the robot’s metal frame. He kick again, doing everything in his power to shake loose-

A pill landed at the robot’s side. It looked, a moment of surprised confusion, before the bomb did what the sword hadn’t.

Graham went flying, neck ripped from the robot’s grasp since he was just on the outside the blast radius, and landed in a tumble not too far away. He looked up in time to see Tavish launch three more of the bombs, hitting the robot full force now that its hostage was out of the way. There was a smudge of blue on Graham’s vision, and then Engie was there too, open firing on the Administrator’s doppelganger.

It jerked, the bombardment of explosives and shotgun blasts forcing it to take a full step back. Parts came loose under the assault, metal arm going flying off into the corner of a room.

With a hard SLAM, it fell into its leather chair, and moved no more.

“What the bloody hell was that?” Tavish said, looking at the smoking ruin of the bot. Graham choked out a response, but it was lost in the swelling of his throat. Tavish noticed, and took a knee next to him. “You alright lad? You really shouldnae have gone off on your own like that.”

Graham wheezed. His fingers traced over his neck, a place where there were already finger-shaped bruises forming. But he didn’t care about any of that, not when the carriers were coming…

“C’mon, let’s get you to the dispenser,” Tavish said, offering Graham his hand.

Graham shook his head. Had to get the words out. Had to warn them. He pushed himself up on his own.

“No,” he finally, _finally_ managed. “W-we have to warn them. We have tae get up there _now_.”

Tavish and Engie exchanged a look. Graham knew he was panicking but he couldn’t help it, time was trickling away even as they spoke-

“Carriers are comin’,” he tried, voice shaking like a leaf. “They’re goin’ tae be slaughtered, we have to get up there now…”

“The carriers?” Engie asked, and Graham jumped on it immediately, nodding his head.

“The one who built them, she was Grey Mann’s daughter, and she’s sending them to kill us.”

If Engie hadn’t been wearing his goggles, Graham was sure his eyes would have widened. “The carriers that do the exact same things as transmitter we just destroyed? Those carriers?”

Graham felt relief that finally someone understood just how fucked they were, but that was the only good feeling in him right now. He nodded again.

“Shite,” Tavish said, the dark reality setting in. “Shite shite double shit.”

And then he was gone, charging down back the way they came. Graham didn’t hesitate to go after them, the near death experience only a minute prior already fading.

They would all be a lot closer to death if they didn’t hurry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll post the last two chapters on Wednesday, ty for everyone who's viewed and commented, I love you all!


	19. Shape of an L on Her Forehead

Soldier screamed, landing on a sniperbot and beating its head in with his shovel. It was oddly therapeutic, but he couldn’t deny the whole ordeal was wearing him down. The signal had gone off hours ago, and there still had been no sign of Engie or the Demomen; it could take time, to get back but…

Every minute that went by without them wore on Soldier faster than the bots ever could.

“Sentry going up!” Sniper called from Soldier’s left. “North side!”

Soldier growled, spotting what Sniper was talking about. The green mettle unfolded, echoing a squeak that was audible even from here.

The engiebots had turned out to be the worst pain of all, and it was no exaggeration they were the smartest machines of the group. Their teleporters were always positioned strategically to flank BLU, and the first time they’d tried the trick it’d nearly gotten Scout.

With Sniper’s help, Soldier dispatched the sentry and hunted down the engiebot. It almost got the better of him, sneaking up behind him and clobbering him with its wrench, but Soldier was able to fight it off thanks to the protection of his helmet.

He stood over the smoking wreckage, panting as he looked around for his next target. His eyes landed on Scout, who was currently tussling with one of the medicbot chains. He was trying to bait them into popping their Übers, but the bots simply refused, always protecting their insides like a slowly regenerating mass.

Soldier frowned. They’d never given Scout any trouble before.

And that was really their only warning.

Soldier was standing on the remains of a heavybot when it happened. He looked up, and only saw it on chance; Medic standing high above the battle, beam trained firmly on Heavy’s back. He looked over his shoulder, probably checking for spies, when a green dot appeared on his temple.

The shot was lost in the din of the fight, but Soldier heard it in his soul. It was roaring, the only beacon of hope smashed so quickly that Soldier barely had time to watch Medic fall. Every mercenary on the plain felt it too, save Heavy whose back was still turned to the doctor.

The world hung still for a moment after it ended. And then Soldier whispered, “…shit.”

* * *

The charge through the tunnels took agonizingly long. It had taken maybe an hour and a half for team A to get down into the caverns, but they needed to get back within the hour if they wanted to warn BLU in time. Each minute was a sweat drop on the back of Tavish’s neck, and he charged the uphill climb until his lungs burned. There were no robots to delay them this time, they’d _have_ to make it…

But what then? They’d never discussed a plan of escape, banking their entire future on one last battle. Get into the desert maybe? How fast did the robots run? And there would be no time to warn RED team-

No. Tavish couldn’t let himself think about that. He cleared his mind of all except the pain in his legs.

Graham and Engie were close behind Tavish. The three of them weren’t much, but it could be enough if there was a tipping that could swing the battle in BLU’s favor. They would have gotten lost a dozen times over if not for Engie’s superior sense of direction, the hardhat retracing their steps perfectly. Soon they were out of the Administrator’s smashed computer room, a cruel parody of the center they’d been in just an hour before.

 _Still time still time_ …

“C’mon!” Graham yelled, directing them past BLU base. “We gotta take the lift.”

Tavish’s mind was screaming that it would be too slow, but Graham would know better than anyone where to go. Engie was following confidently, so Tavish took off after the two them.

Screams came from the sharp cliff above them.

“Shite…” Graham muttered, clambering in the carriage and pulling on some levers.

The doors were already slamming closed, and Engie motioned Tavish to clamber over. He did, barely managing to haul himself in as the metal cage pulled itself off the ground. A thousand gunshots blared from above.

“It’s started,” Engie said hollowly.

Tavish was about ready to kick the lift for going so slow.

As they got closer to the top, the cries turned into something recognizable. It was the BLU Heavy screaming, in a furious rage but also in pain. No words came out, insulting the bots that were no doubt swarming him; instead it was just one warbling cry of anguish. Tavish glanced over, and saw Graham’s whole body sag as he realized what as happening.

The carriage reached the top, and they were greeted with chaos. Robots ran everywhere, BLU members few and far between as they lost their structure and succumbed to their own battles. Just as the doors swung open, Heavy’s screams stopped, and Tavish caught a glimpse of one giant hand being dragged under a ever-growing pile of bat-wielding scoutbots.

There was the Pyro, one Tavish had been so briefly acquainted with, suffering the same fate as soldierbots closed in on them. But Tavish didn’t have time to look more, his eye focused, searching, trying to find the one person who mattered…

_There._

There was Jane, rocket-launcher torn from his grasp, fighting off demobots with only his shovel. Tavish didn’t even think before he was running, tearing over the open terrain with the last strength left in his legs. Even as closed the space between them, a knock from one of the bots sent Jane to his knees, shovel skittering out of his reach. The robot raised its blade-

“NAE ON MY WATCH YOU TIN CAN,” Tavish screamed.

He met the sword with the Half Zatoichi, inches above Jane’s exposed back. He used every ounce of strength to rip it upwards, throwing the demobot off balance and slicing through its metal chest.

He gasped, exhausted from his run through the tunnels and now across the plain. But there’s still so much, still a dozen more demobots around them, closing in fast. He turned around and helped Jane to his feet.

“Tavish,” he said, breathless and desperate, and in a way that said so much in a simple name. It told Tavish he’d been worried to, but had no danger the extend he himself was in.

“Reunions later!” Tavish cried over the din of the battle. “We need to get the fuck out o’ here!”

Even as he said it, he blocked a strike from an incoming sword.

Engie and Graham weren’t far behind, and thank god Tavish hadn’t lost them in the charge. “We need to get to the cars,” Engie demanded, and pointed a mechanical finger across the battlefield.

 _Cars?_ But there they were, the BLU team’s vehicles, still beautiful and untouched. It was fucking hope, something the entire group of survivors realized at once.

“ **MEN! FULL RETREAT!** ” Jane bellowed, the only voice loud enough to make it over the sound of battle.

Tavish didn’t wait to see if anyone else responded. He barreled off towards the cars, dust kicking up after him. Soon Jane was beside him, over on his left. Engie and Graham pulled along too, every single one of them running like his life depended on it. Which it did. The sound of a sniper shot whizzed by Tavish’s head, but he just kept on fucking running.

Running. Running. They put space between them and the robots. Enough space that maybe they could do this, the cars getting closer every second.

Running right up until a soldierbot’s rocket hit its mark.

* * *

It could have killed any one of them. A little to the left or the right would have gotten someone completely different. If the soldierbot had even led its shot a little, it might have gotten all four of them.

But it didn’t.

Graham pushed himself to his knees, coughing up the dirt he’d gotten a mouthful. He couldn’t hear anything. It was disorienting to have a thousand sounds of metal clanging all around you, and the next second be encased in complete silence. The rocket had blast his ears apart, and he reached to feel if there was blood coming out them.

So he saw—rather than heard—Engie as he coughed up his own lungful of dust. Graham blinked, looking at the robots behind them as they closed in fast. Their quarry was stunned, temporarily helpless even as Engie got to his feet. They needed to get up, and Graham turned to his left-

And saw Tavish.

The Demoman was lying facedown in a pool of his own blood. And he wasn’t moving.

Graham’s mouth hung open in a silent scream. Actually, it might have been a real scream, but he had now way to tell when he was deaf to the world. The side of Tavish’s face was an awful mess, matching the side of his body the rocket must have hit. It leaked into the dirt, making mud where his body touched the earth.

Beyond him, Jane stirred.

Graham knew. He knew the instant that Jane moved he couldn’t let the Soldier see Tavish’s body. Scrambling to his feet he tried, vainly, to get in between them before-

Jane lifted his head and froze. Graham recognized what was happening. He knew every thought that was passing through Jane’s mind because it had happened to him less than a day ago. It was complete and utter denial that something like this could happen because it _couldn’t_ it just couldn’t.

Engie moved around, grabbing Jane’s shoulder, his mouth forming the words _got to go_ but that was all Graham could pick up. The robots were getting closer now, maybe close enough that Graham could fire off a few stickies but it wouldn’t clear out enough for them to be safe.

And Jane was still frozen.

Engie was trying to pull him to his feet and Graham was afraid he might give up on Jane if the Soldier didn’t move in the next couple seconds. But something much worse happened. Jane’s eyes steeled.

His head turned, and Graham’s followed, locating among the hordes the soldierbot who had fired the rocket. It was taunting: its fingers forming an L on its forehead as it stood at salute. Graham could practically hear the metallic laughter inside his brain.

Jane stood, eyes never leaving the robot as he clutched his shovel in his hand. Some unearthly battle cry came over him, filled with more savage hatred than Graham had ever seen him display before, even when the Soldier had killed him once over a year ago. It was powerful enough that Graham could _hear_ it, even through all the cotton in his ears.

Jane made a step towards the bots.

Graham knew what was about to happen. He could see it unfolding in slow motion: Jane was going go in there, and he certainly wasn’t going to stop with just one strike of vengeance. He would run into those bots armed with only a shovel and Graham would lose the only friend he had left.

So he grabbed him. He struggled against the Soldier’s rage, screaming in his ear they had to go. At least he thought that’s what he screamed. But even as the robots marched ever closer, Jane fought him like he was the devil himself. Graham did the only thing he could think of: he elbowed Jane in the stomach.

The blow finally took the wind out of the Soldier, and Graham was able to lift him under the armpits and start their slow drag away from Tavish’s murderer. Engie didn’t hesitate to help, seeing the sate his Soldier was in.

Jane screamed. Graham wasn’t sure if it was at him or just screaming in general, but either way he fought as Engie and Graham hauled the last hundred feet to the cars. They were out of the range of the sniper fire, the bullets flying harmlessly dozens of feet off the mark. At least now they only had to deal with the hundred or so robots chasing them.

Suddenly Spy was beside them, running at their pace despite a gushing wound in the side of his head.

“Pyro is dead,” he croaked, voice audible over the ringing that had replaced the muffled silence in Graham’s ear. “I tried but I couldn’t…”

“It’s alright Spy,” Engie told him. “Just focus on staying alive.”

“Have any of you seen Scout?” Spy slurred, and Graham wondered how much he was really with them right now. The wound looked bad, bloodloss must be taking hold.

“Can’t say I have partner. But you need to _focus_.”

Spy staggered and pressed a hand to the side of his head. Then he looked down at the three of them, as though seeing them for the first time. “What is wrong with Soldier?”

Graham opened his mouth but…he felt he couldn’t find the words anymore. Like every ounce of thought had been squeezed out of him, verbalization left behind with his dead friend.

Engie filled in the gaps. “He’s trying to go fight the robots.”

“Oh. But he was the one who sounded the retreat, no? I thought…” Spy swayed, sluggish even compared to the two men hauling a broken mercenary across the dry battlefield. “Here, let me help.”

Spy reached over and pinched something near Jane’s shoulder. Immediately, the Soldier slackened, almost like the wind had been knocked out of him again. Graham felt the change immediately, and they were already sliding Soldier across the dirt faster.

Fifty feet.

Twenty.

Five.

They slammed against the side of the blue pickup truck, Engie fumbling in his pockets for the keys. Graham began to haul Jane into the bed, when a rocket soared over them and tore into Sniper’s van.

Graham ducked, and he and Spy only barely managed to dodge the flying shrapnel.

The engine gave a shuttering turn.

“Dag nabbit,” the voice inside the cab said, and Graham imitated his sentiment.

The fucking truck. Always taking four or five tries after it’d been sitting unused for a few days. This was like a fucking zombie movie, and the comparison was so accurate it made Graham start with a bout of wild, unhinged laughter.

“Scout?”

Spy’s sudden question was enough to make Graham stop. He lifted his head, and sure enough, there was Scout running at full speed into them.

“Hey guys,” he huffed, sputtering to a stop and grabbing the truck for support. “I think I lost ‘em.”

After he pushed himself off his knees he took a look over his shoulder.

“Aw crap.”

The engine sputtered to life. Graham wasted no time, crawling into the back beside the faintly moving Soldier, and turning back around to help Spy in. Scout was already climbing over, banging on the roof of the cab and yelling _go go go go_.

Engie obliged, tearing down the dirt road at the rickety little engine’s top speed. As Graham looked back at the fading sight of the map his brain was telling him _we need to wait for Sniper and Medic, they’re still out there, we need to wait-_

But he quashed it. They needed to be alive, get the fuck out when this might be their only chance to escape-

Robots appeared on ridges around them.

“Shit!” Scout yelled. “Those must be the ones that were coming from the south!”

Even as he yelled, robots began sliding down the hill, some of the less agile ones turning into a tumble of mechanical parts. But Graham’s attention was drawn to the northern hill, where a less robotic figure was making its stand.

“Holy shit!” Scout said, attention pulled. “Is that Snipes?”

Sniper noticed the blue truck the same time they noticed him. Unfortunately, a scoutbot jumped him at that exact instant, and the two went rolling down the hill.

“Shucks!” Engie swore, dodging as the two bodies rolled in front of the truck. He only barely missed Sniper, the Australian’s hat getting sucked underneath the tires.

“Well that’s just great,” Scout said glumly. With that, he clambered to the bed of the edge of the truck bed and launched himself out the back.

“Scout!” Spy practically screamed. “Get back here this instant!”

But Scout was already crossing the yards back to reach Sniper and his attacker. Engie called out the window, “I’m slowing down but I ain’t stopping!”

The scene unfolded with precise timing. Sniper stood, Bushwacka carving off the scoutbots legs and then piercing its forehead with purpose. Sniper staggered, the tumult of robots still pouring down the hill on his right side, even as he took a staggering step toward the truck. Scout met him halfway, slipping an arm under his shoulders and helping him hobble the last distance to the slowly moving vehicle. The robots were hot on their heels, a sticky-bomb landing mere feet to the left of them as the two caught up with the truck, and blowing the would-be attackers to shrapnel. Graham leaned down and practically scooped Sniper out of Scout’s arms, the runner needing no help getting his own self in.

“Go man! We’re in!” Scout shouted.

And they finally booked it.

The sea of robots began to slink behind them, even the scoutbots that pulled ahead of the pack. But the truck was faster than even them, tearing through the badlands as waves of heat rolled in. The noon sun shined above the robots’ heads, slowly turning the wave into a silver blemish on the horizon, threat fading like a bad dream.

Graham didn’t really think it was over. He kept expecting another army of robots to spring into their path along the highway, being one step ahead of them just like they always seemed to be. That’s what these robots did, right? Meet hope with metal laughter and perpetually cruel smiles.

But he breathed and Sniper snored and Scout tried to find something to bandage Spy’s head. The back of the truck boiled into silence, and it wasn’t until the moon rose overhead at the end of the third day that he finally accepted they were safe.


	20. Epilogue

They stopped at a gas station. Scout went in to buy snacks while Engie set up a dispenser in the back of the truck, Sniper and Spy lounging gratefully in its fumes. Demo tried to lean Soldier against it too, but he got a feeling the man’s state wasn’t something a bit of australium-powered healing could fix.

They were all that was left. Demo had learned that Medic was the first to go, the rest of their plan falling apart not long after. Demo thought of Heavy’s screaming, arriving seconds too late, still only barely managing so save Soldier in time…

So much time wasted. And still Demo felt like he could have done more.

He had failed to convince her. He’d let this happen. And now Tavish was dead and half his team…

He wondered what would happen to RED team. If the robots would sweep through Hydro, extinguishing any trace of organic life, or maybe Olivia would continue her little game, watching how long her toys suffered before snapping and killing one another again.

It was all so…small. The things he still had left. He watched Scout return with candy and sports drinks, and Engie promptly tell him off for not getting real food. It was almost like they were free but…the illusion was too good to last. Mann Co. could make good on their threats at any second, or the robots and their mistress could still be hunting. Nowhere was safe, too many unknowns, too few friends left…

Demo leaned against the pump and looked at Soldier. Whatever Spy had done to him, it must have worn off by now. This was deeper than that. Demo knew it too, the chasm that had opened up beneath him when he’d held Mary in his arms and been able to do nothing.

It had happened too fast. One second Tavish was running alongside them, the next he wasn’t, with no final words on that last stretch of battlefield. No chance to say goodbye.

“Hey ain’t going to forgive you, you know,” Engie said, clicking the pump back into place.

The hole inside Demo widened. He knew Soldier better than Engie did but…there was still that looming fear that Engie might be right.

“Maybe. But I need him too anyway.” He felt Engie’s eyes on him.

“Demo, if you need-”

“I dunnae.”

“You don’t even know what was going to say.”

“You were going to say if I need someone to talk to, you’re here.” Demo looked over at Engie, his helmet off and the dome of his head gleamed with sweat. But his goggles were gone too, and his eyes were soft.

“Well. Yeah. I am.”

Demo rubbed his eye. It was wet, but he didn’t remember crying. It must just be the sort of state he was in.

“Listen Engie,” Demo said. “The only reason I made it this far was because I still had work tae do. Mates tae look after. Even now, I dunnae think we’ve made it out o’ the woods.”

Engie nodded. He’d probably been making plans already, plotting their next move. Demo didn’t want to hear it.

“But the _second_ the day is saved and we’re all somewhere far away…” Demo cleared his throat. So that’s where the tears had been coming from. “…I’m just goin’ tae fall apart. And there isnae much anyone can do about that.”

The two of them quietly watched the three BLUs on the truck in silence. The present was fucked. Their future was fucked. The only reason Spy wasn’t dead was a machine that ran on startling-ly scarce resource they soon wouldn’t have access to with the Administrator gone. The only thing they had was a small band of teammates that was Demo’s puny excuse for a family.

And yet he still had so much left to lose.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you so much for all your goreous comments you guys. I've never gotten this much feeback on everything I've written, and it makes me so stupid happy that so many people enjoyed it. Seriously i woke up this morning to post the final two and got a little misty because it's all gunna be over ;_;
> 
> I luv you all! Hopefully see you in the next one


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